Word.ws English Dictionary

rickety

/ˈɹɪk.ɪ.ti/

rickety adjective: of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure.

rickety: a wooden bridge in the middle of a snowy forest
Photo by Ronan Furuta on Unsplash

Adjective

rickety (comparative ricketier or more rickety, superlative ricketiest or most rickety)

  1. Of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure.
    • He hesitated about climbing such a small, rickety ladder.
    • She now knew every article Mrs Dibble had to sell, and the large part of the stock that was unsaleable by reason of its damaged state. Customers turned away from rickety chairs, stands of drawers that refused to open, or had no handles, lop-sided wardrobes whose doors were out of plumb or whose...1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 61
  2. Feeble in the joints; tottering.
    • The rickety old man hardly managed to climb the stairs.
  3. Affected with or suffering from rickets; rachitic.

rickety meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Persian

rickety in Urdu

سست, ضعیف

rickety in Malayalam

ആടുന്ന, സ്ഥിരതയില്ലാത്ത, ബലഹീനമായ

rickety in Kannada

ಅಲುಗಾಡುವ, ಅಳವುಗುಂದಿದ, ಅಸಳೆ, ಅಲ್ಲಾಡುವ, ಕೀಲುಗಳೆಲ್ಲ ಸಡಲಿಹೋದ, ಶಿಥಿಲವಾದ

rickety in Persian

not strong because of poor construction or upkeep
زپرتی zeperti, فکسّنی fakassani
feeble in the joints, tottering
فکسّنی fakassani
More languagesFewer languages
rickety in Thai
ง่อนแง่น ngɔ̂n-ngɛ̂n, กระง่อนกระแง่น grà-ngɔ̂n-grà-ngɛ̂n, อ่อนแอ ɔ̀ɔn-ɛɛ, เปราะบาง bprɔ̀-baang

Examples of rickety in a sentence

  • Although the car was quite rickety, he could negotiate the curves very well.
  • We were warned away from the rickety old mine because of the danger of cave-ins.
  • This rickety beater of a car isn’t worth repairing anymore.

All 25 example sentences with rickety

Synonyms of rickety

11 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

5 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of rickety

Forms of rickety

comparativericketier
comparativemore rickety
superlativericketiest
superlativemost rickety
alternative formricketty
alternative formrickedy

Origin of rickety

From dialectal ricket (“unstable, rickety”) + -y, and/or ricket (“to move noisily and in a reckless way”) + -y. Alternatively, and perhaps less likely, from rickets + -y.

Words formed from rickety

Words that rhyme with rickety

Questions about rickety

What does rickety mean?
Rickety means of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure.
What is rickety in Urdu?
Rickety in Urdu is سست, ضعیف. See Rickety meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is rickety?
Rickety is an adjective.
How do you pronounce rickety?
Rickety is pronounced /ˈɹɪk.ɪ.ti/ (UK).

Words near rickety in the dictionary

  1. rickettsiology
  2. rickettsioses
  3. rickettsiosis
  4. rickettsiostatic
  5. ricketty
  6. rickety
  7. rickey
  8. rickeys
  9. rickhouse
  10. rickhouses
  11. Ricki

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rickety (page history and authors); rickety (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rickety (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rickety (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rickety.wav.

Cite this entry: “rickety.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rickety. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.