lankier; lankiest
: ungracefully tall and thin
Examples of lanky in a Sentence
the lanky basketball star was great at slam-dunking
Recent Examples on the Web
Without that type of pruning the plant will tend to grow lanky and leggy.
—
Neil Sperry, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Apr. 2024
Image The dancers’ footwork starts out in fits and spurts, becoming more intricate, more full-bodied as Harris weaves slow motion within blissfully fast crossing feet and lanky arms.
—Gia Kourlas, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
On Wednesday night, lanky and sweet-voiced Josiah Benson played Little Michael, Brandon Lee Harris was the teen/young adult Michael and Roman Banks was the adult Michael, billed in the program as MJ.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Mar. 2024
Before becoming one of the greatest NBA players in history, Jordan was a lanky freshman on a team led by James Worthy and Sam Perkins that spent 11 weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll in 1981-82.
—John Marshall, USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2024
The lanky son of Cold War-era Soviet emigres to the U.S. appears at occasional Moscow court sessions where he is kept penned in a plexiglass enclosure.
—Dan Morrison, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024
The person had seen Hill, the Dodgers director of minor league pitching, talking with a tall, lanky, athletic Asian player on the backfields at Camelback Ranch.
—Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2024
In 1959, when NASA chose the first group of seven astronauts for its Project Mercury in America’s race to put a man on the moon, General Stafford, a lanky, 6-foot Oklahoman who was then a junior Air Force officer, was on the selection list.
—Richard Goldstein, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024
The lanky rapper who began his career rhyming before pivoting back-and-forth between rock, pop and every combination in-between appears to be ready to fully take a country detour.
—Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 16 Feb. 2024
Neil Sperry, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Apr. 2024
Image The dancers’ footwork starts out in fits and spurts, becoming more intricate, more full-bodied as Harris weaves slow motion within blissfully fast crossing feet and lanky arms.
—Gia Kourlas, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
On Wednesday night, lanky and sweet-voiced Josiah Benson played Little Michael, Brandon Lee Harris was the teen/young adult Michael and Roman Banks was the adult Michael, billed in the program as MJ.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Mar. 2024
Before becoming one of the greatest NBA players in history, Jordan was a lanky freshman on a team led by James Worthy and Sam Perkins that spent 11 weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll in 1981-82.
—John Marshall, USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2024
The lanky son of Cold War-era Soviet emigres to the U.S. appears at occasional Moscow court sessions where he is kept penned in a plexiglass enclosure.
—Dan Morrison, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024
The person had seen Hill, the Dodgers director of minor league pitching, talking with a tall, lanky, athletic Asian player on the backfields at Camelback Ranch.
—Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2024
In 1959, when NASA chose the first group of seven astronauts for its Project Mercury in America’s race to put a man on the moon, General Stafford, a lanky, 6-foot Oklahoman who was then a junior Air Force officer, was on the selection list.
—Richard Goldstein, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024
The lanky rapper who began his career rhyming before pivoting back-and-forth between rock, pop and every combination in-between appears to be ready to fully take a country detour.
—Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 16 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lanky.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Lanky.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lanky. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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