Word.ws English Dictionary

ticky-tack

ticky-tack noun: something of low value; (by extension) something meaningless or insignificant.

Noun

ticky-tack (uncountable)

  1. Something of low value; (by extension) something meaningless or insignificant.
    • But why should we have to struggle against this garbagy tide of cheap rip-off ticky-tack, when we could be drinking the wine of paradise even now under our own vine & fig tree?2003, Hakim Bey, T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone

Synonyms of ticky-tack

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Origin of ticky-tack

Probably a back-formation from ticky-tacky (adjective).

Questions about ticky-tack

What does ticky-tack mean?
Ticky-tack means something of low value; (by extension) something meaningless or insignificant.
What part of speech is ticky-tack?
Ticky-tack is a noun.

Words near ticky-tack in the dictionary

  1. ticky box
  2. ticky boxes
  3. ticky tacky
  4. ticky-box
  5. ticky-boxes
  6. ticky-tack
  7. ticky-tacky
  8. ticlatone
  9. ticlike
  10. Ticlio
  11. ticlopidine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ticky-tack (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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Cite this entry: “ticky-tack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ticky-tack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.