dodgy

American  

[doj-ee] / ˈdɒdʒ i /

adjective

dodgier, dodgiest

1. inclined to dodge.

2. evasively tricky.

   a dodgy manner of dealing with people.

3. Chiefly British. risky; hazardous; chancy.

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dodgy British  

/ ˈdɒdʒɪ /

adjective

1. risky, difficult, or dangerous

2. uncertain or unreliable; tricky

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Etymology

Origin of dodgy

First recorded in 1860–65; dodge + -y ¹

Explanation

A dodgy situation is risky and suspicious. A dodgy person is skilled in lying and deceiving. Neither should be trusted. When a person or situation is called dodgy, it's a clue that they should be dodged if at all possible. A job might be dodgy because it's illegal or dangerous. A shortcut might be dodgy if it could damage your car. Running a marathon without preparation is very dodgy. Similarly, a dodgy person is untrustworthy because they’re evasive, cunning, sly, or just a flat-out liar.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dodgy dodgier dodgiest

OK, but surely that’s all for dodgy people who worked for Collins?

From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2026

Consumer group Which? said it has "repeatedly exposed businesses, including trusted household brands, ripping off customers with dodgy deals that aren't what they seem".

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

However, Vaughan stated he believed Root had been dealt a "dodgy hand" during his time as Test captain.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

Under Greenspan’s watch, the Fed didn’t blow the whistle on riskier lending practices in which Wall Street used financial alchemy to turn dodgy mortgages into highly rated securities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

Jule got out of the subway in a dodgy Brooklyn neighborhood.

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart

Banks are also beautifying their books through “significant risk transfers,” or SRTs, that shift potentially dodgier assets off balance sheet.

From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2025

Things get a bit dodgier if you’re in a loud environment, but all headphones struggle in that scenario.

From The Verge ● May 12, 2022

But we’ve moved on from that now – there’s no group that aspires to James’s dodgy values and dodgier exploding stationery.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 22, 2018

Kayla will later deal with scarier and dodgier situations than these run-of-the-mill indignities, even if Eighth Grade mercifully never goes as dark as first-time writer-director Bo Burnham sometimes seem to hint it will.

From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2018

There was no smarter trader, and none dodgier, in the islands. 

From Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson

Through the dodgiest situations, brother and sister do not hesitate to argue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026

So, she walks, in darkness and icy rain, through the dodgiest parts of the city.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 4, 2016

Money arrives to Manafort circuitously, sometimes through the dodgiest of routes.

From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2016

Even the studio and one-bedroom apartments in “Block B”, long considered the dodgiest of the six, are now thought to be bijou.

From Economist ● Feb. 25, 2016

The reason to describe the plot in only the hedgiest and dodgiest of terms isn’t so much to avoid spoilers as to avoid giving away the only thing the movie’s got.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 16, 2015

Related Words

• evasive
• shifty