creaky

[kree-kee]

adjective

creakier, creakiest 

1. creaking or apt to creak.

   a creaky stairway.

2. run-down; dilapidated.

   a creaky shack.

3. Phonetics.,  (of the voice) produced by vibration of a small portion of the vocal cords while the arytenoid cartilages are held together, with little breath being released; laryngealized.

Other Word Forms

• creakily adverb
• creakiness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of creaky¹

First recorded in 1825–35; creak + -y ¹

Example Sentences

Amanda, 62, said: "We're the fossils now and we want the chance to make some memories of our own before we get too creaky."

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The GOP assiduously examined Gould’s extensive writings, which included proposals for reform of the increasingly creaky NLRB, for suspect pro-union thinking in what he labels “a deliberate disinformation campaign.”

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The new campus replaces a creaky, 1930s-era school with a dignified facade and bell tower.

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And then I started to get creaky around age 70.

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In “The Great Yes,” Kentridge turns to a creaky old cargo ship smelling of rotted oranges that sailed from Marseille to Martinique in 1941 overcrowded with some 300 passengers escaping Vichy France.

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Related Words

• battered 
• broken-down 
• dilapidated 
• feeble 
• flimsy 
• frail 
• infirm 
• ramshackle 
• rickety 
• run down 
• seedy 
• shabby