adjective
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sticky
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excessively sentimental or emotional
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of icky
An Americanism dating back to 1930–35; of uncertain origin
Explanation
Something that's icky is disgusting and gummy or sticky. When you walk around a busy city all day, you're bound to end up with something icky stuck to the bottom of your shoe. After frolicking through the mud, your dog will be dirty and icky, and a particularly humid summer day can feel icky too. You can also use icky to simply mean "yucky" or "nasty," as when your school cafeteria offers several icky dishes for lunch, like mystery meat and mystery mash. The informal icky is an American invention, from the 1920's slang icky-boo, baby talk for "sick" or "nauseated."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But over-the-top comments such as "Japanese people are next level" give her an "icky vibe", Kubota told AFP.
From Barron's • Mar. 24, 2026
“I was in a period of mourning and I didn’t want to give myself worldly pleasures because I thought it would make me feel icky or sad.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
But for now, plenty of market signals suggest that it’s OK for investors to live in a home where there are cockroaches in the walls — as icky as it feels.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 6, 2025
A female police officer who volunteered to run in plain clothes to catch catcallers has said their behaviour "makes me feel really sort of icky".
From BBC • Aug. 15, 2025
We spend the rest of the day de-dustifying—my term for getting rid of all of the icky dust—and mopping the floors.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
