as in dilapidated
not strong or stable and likely to break
rickety stairs a rickety old table
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Recent Examples of rickety
They will now be soldered together to form a financially rickety public hospital system.
—
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 7 Feb. 2026
Along those lines, the rickety regional sports network model certainly is a concern, especially with the Giants owning a chunk of NBC Sports Bay Area.
—Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Jan. 2026
The result was a gleaming skyscraper held up by some rickety wooden boards, duct tape, and magic.
—Ian Stokes, Space.com, 14 Nov. 2025
Everything looks so rickety — this stadium wasn’t built for pandemonium like this.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 15 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rickety
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 7 Feb. 2026
Along those lines, the rickety regional sports network model certainly is a concern, especially with the Giants owning a chunk of NBC Sports Bay Area.
—Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Jan. 2026
The result was a gleaming skyscraper held up by some rickety wooden boards, duct tape, and magic.
—Ian Stokes, Space.com, 14 Nov. 2025
Everything looks so rickety — this stadium wasn’t built for pandemonium like this.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 15 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rickety
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rickety
Adjective
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The state Department of Corrections is in strikingly similar dire straits with dilapidated prisons and a decreasing number of COs.—
Steve Zeidman,
New York Daily News,
2 Apr. 2026
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Ross saved the Miami Open, moving it from a dilapidated Key Biscayne venue, and retrofitting Hard Rock Stadium’s grounds for it.—
Omar Kelly,
Miami Herald,
24 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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At last official count last year, the population in this hodgepodge of industrial plants, cow fields and ramshackle trailers was 16.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
5 Apr. 2026
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The home here is a ramshackle London town house where a famed painter, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), is spending his final years in a haze of creative stagnation and lingering renown.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rickety.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rickety. Accessed 9 Apr. 2026.
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