plonky

Adjective

plonky (comparative plonkier, superlative plonkiest)

1. (informal) Chiefly of pianos: having an unappealing, thudding sound.
   • They both possess a light, slightly nasal voice, but whereas Siffre has his excellent guitar work to back up his vocals, O'Sullivan only has that same old plonky piano and his arranger.1973, Beat Instrumental & International Recording, numbers 122-127, page 59
   • Clement Ishmael's plodding arrangements for lone, plonky piano, and the unlovely voices of two-thirds of the cast, do not help: even a sublimely sexy song like You Can Leave Your Hat On is rendered flat and toneless.1996, Theatre Record, volume 16, numbers 9-15, page 871
2. (figuratively) Dull, stiff, unadventurous.
   • Where are the Paines and Cobdens and Nocks of today? Why are almost all of our laissez-faire limited governmentalists, plonky conservatives, and patriots? If the opposite of "radical" is "conservative," where are our radical laissez-fairists? If our limited statists were truly radical, there would...1977 July, Murray N. Rothbard, “Do You Hate the State?”, in The Libertarian Forum, volume 10, number 7, Mises Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2024
3. (figuratively, slang) Of wine: having the qualities of plonk; cheap and inferior.