ticky-tacky

American  

[tik-ee-tak-ee] / ˈtɪk iˌtæk i /

Sometimes ticky-tack

adjective

1. shoddy and unimaginatively designed; flimsy and dull.

   a row of new, ticky-tacky bungalows.

2. tacky.

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noun

1. ticky-tacky material or something made of it, especially housing.

Etymology

Origin of ticky-tacky

First recorded in 1960–65; gradational compound based on tacky ²

Example Sentences

“It seems kind of ticky-tacky, but it helps with my mental state to think of myself that way ... I survived something that many people haven’t.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2025

They are hulking cubes and, no matter how much developers splash on colorful paint and add bits of ticky-tacky, they all look as if they came from the same box of Legos.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 17, 2023

In the 1950s, inexpensive "cottages" sprang up all over the Bay Area, providing what folksinger Malvina Reynolds called "little boxes made of ticky-tacky."

From Salon • Oct. 17, 2020

Yet again and again, they flag ticky-tacky, or even phantom, contact, and they overlook obvious muggings.

From Washington Post • Nov. 27, 2016

The Point Lookout Clam Bar abuts a commercial pier and a crushed-shell parking lot, a ticky-tacky seasonal shack with a retail fish business attached.

From New York Times • Jul. 14, 2010