manky
Britishadjective
-
worthless, rotten, or in bad taste
-
dirty, filthy, or bad
Etymology
Origin of manky
via Polari from Italian mancare to be lacking
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.
A manky bird on her balcony jolts Sara from semi-wakefulness right after she’s had a dream of her dying father.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2025
"One day I was moving some dried flowers that had started to look a bit manky so I decided the throw them away," Rose-Mary wrote after she started documenting the goings-on in the late nineties.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2023
“I was a kid during these times. I was born in 1990. These manky MP3 players were what I had,” says a typically cheerful Nixon, early in the morning from his home in South Australia.
From The Verge ● Jun. 24, 2022
And shouldn’t candles stick to just smelling unemotionally pleasant rather than probably a bit manky but in a way that makes you want to cry?
From The Guardian ● Aug. 23, 2020
Autumn's fungussy, berries’re manky, leaves're rusting, Vs of long-distance birds're crossing the sky, evenings’re smoky, nights're cold, autumn’s nearly dead.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
