rickety

adjective

rick·ety | \ ˈri-kə-tē

Definition of rickety

1 : affected with rickets

2a : lacking stability or firmness : shaky sense 2a a rickety coalition

b : in unsound physical condition rickety veterans rickety stairs

Examples of rickety in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Largely uncelebrated in its native land, Cinco de Mayo is mostly a rickety pretext for tequila-fueled parties north of the border. — Jeremy Bagott, WSJ, "America Is at the End of the Lime," 2 May 2019 This peaceable backyard space originally was occupied by a typical, rickety, 1920s-era single-car garage. — Sandy Deneau Dunham, The Seattle Times, "This is not your grandmother’s backyard cottage," 13 Apr. 2019 Port, after a brief stay in an unidentified city in the Maghreb (as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Mauritania are collectively called), likewise heads south, but in his case by rickety local bus, interminably. — Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, "T&C Travel: Best of Morocco," 30 Mar. 2015 The easel was a gift from her corporate-lawyer father and soon made her a source of merriment among her savvier classmates at Yale’s School of Art, who knew that even figurative painters no longer used the rickety contraptions. — Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, "In Her First Solo Museum Snow, Jordan Casteel’s Humanizing Portraits Get Even Closer," 15 Jan. 2019 The families here at Khumib were living in temporary tents, rickety frameworks of sticks covered in patchwork rags, that would be packed away onto the back of a donkey in a morning. — Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, "Going Off-Grid in Namibia," 21 Dec. 2018 Not only are our election guardians merely outmatched, but the system they guard is also rickety. — Benjamin Wofford, Vox, "The midterms are already hacked. You just don’t know it yet.," 25 Oct. 2018 Most of them crossed the Suchiate River, the wide river of brown waters dividing Mexico and Guatemala, on rickety rafts. — Juan Montes, WSJ, "Caravan Heads North After Migrants Cross Into Mexico," 22 Oct. 2018 Each of those platforms had advantages and disadvantages, but those last four were built on old and increasingly rickety foundations. — Dieter Bohn, The Verge, "How Android got big," 24 Oct. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rickety.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

9 May 2019

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The first known use of rickety was in 1673

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More Definitions for rickety

rickety

adjective

English Language Learners Definition of rickety

: not strong or stable and likely to break

See the full definition for rickety in the English Language Learners Dictionary

rickety

adjective

rick·ety | \ ˈri-kə-tē

Kids Definition of rickety

: in poor condition and likely to break Just below them, hugging the shore, rose a village of thatched huts, with a small, rickety pier, boats on the sand, and nets spread for mending.— Lloyd Alexander, Time Cat