Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use sketchy in a sentence

15 example sentences · adjective

Sketchy means roughly or hastily laid out; intended for later refinement. Example: “The first draft included a sketchy design.”

Examples of sketchy by meaning

adjectiveRoughly or hastily laid out; intended for later refinement.

  • The first draft included a sketchy design.

adjectiveNot thorough or detailed.

  • This is still in the design stage, so details are sketchy.2021 August 11, Paul Bigland, “Where HS2 will meet EWR”, in RAIL, number 937, page 39
  • Bellos and Montagu offer a few sketchy alternatives, such as shorter post mortem protections or a curb on corporate rights capture, and call for a “broad debate” on copyright's future.2024 January 13, Boyd Tonkin, “The culture of copyright creep”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd....

adjectiveOf questionable or doubtful quality.

  • The sketchy repair job did not look like it would hold.

adjectiveSuspected of taking part in illicit or dishonorable dealings.

  • Because he is so sketchy, I always think that he is up to something.
  • The downside of working with sketchy dudes on building sites and in greasy spoons was that they were sketchy, but they also knew shady things.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 201

adjectiveDisturbing or unnerving, often in such a way that others may suspect them of intending physical or sexual harm or...

  • Jack is so sketchy. I think he's stalking me.

adjectiveDisturbing, or indicating possible danger.

  • "There were some nice breaks, but it looked pretty sketchy with the sharks, so yeah, we just tried to stay away from that beach."2025 January 4, “Surfing community again in mourning after latest shark attack on SA coast”, in ABC News (Australia)

More sentences with sketchy

  • I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.From the entry rickroll
  • I dunno if I could ever trust a gloryholer: their need for anonymity is just so sketchy to me.From the entry gloryholer
  • Another factor is that ESOPs had a rocky beginning, which for a while made them appear sketchy.2016 September 8, John Case, “The Life-Changing Magic of Turning Employees Into Shareholders”, in The Atlantic. From the entry ESOP
  • “Looks really sketchy,” Claire Olivia said, looking in the rearview mirror to fix her beehive hairdo.2013, Bill Konigsberg, Openly Straight, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN. From the entry hairdon't
  • It's nothing sketchy, swear down, it's just this one thing.”2014, Antonin Varenne, Loser's Corner, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry swear down
  • The remaining works concentrate mostly on sketchy pictures of hairless creatures with elongated beaklike and sometimes trunklike noses.2009 January 2, Roberta Smith, “Widely Known for Obscurity”, in New York Times. From the entry beaklike
  • Stark blacks, whites and reds, alongside inky, sketchy lineart, the popularity of nu metal and emo kept Mall Gothic alive for all of the 00s.2020 August 6, @KaiserBeamz, Twitter, archived from the original on 02 Mar 2024. From the entry whimsigoth

Meaning of sketchy

  1. adjective Roughly or hastily laid out; intended for later refinement.
  2. adjective Not thorough or detailed.
  3. adjective Resembling a comedy sketch, of sketch quality.

Full definition of sketchy

Questions about sketchy in a sentence

How do you use sketchy in a sentence?
Sketchy is used as an adjective. For example: “The first draft included a sketchy design.”
What is a short sentence with sketchy?
“The first draft included a sketchy design.”
What does sketchy mean?
Sketchy means roughly or hastily laid out; intended for later refinement.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sketchy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use sketchy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sketchy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.