adjective
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irregular in quality, occurrence, intensity, etc
a patchy essay
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having or forming patches
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of patchy
Explanation
If you describe something as patchy, you mean it's uneven or irregular, like your patchy front lawn with brown spots scattered among the green tufts of grass. Patchy things can appear spotty or mottled in color, or feel rough and bumpy to the touch. If your dog gets fleas and scratches too much, his fur might be patchy. And, if the sky is speckled with clouds, it also looks patchy. You can also call something that's inconsistent patchy: "Your math homework is patchy — some days you do it all, and others you only answer one or two questions."
Vocabulary lists containing patchy
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.
See Examples For:
Internal migration data is patchy, but the most recent data from Spain in 2024 showed northern provinces were growing as Spaniards migrated there from other parts of the country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
But patchy cancer data makes it hard to know whether residents develop the disease at a higher rate than elsewhere in the country.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
“This does not seem to be a controversial view,” they said, noting that about 23 basis points of tightening are currently priced in, and the economic recovery has been patchy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Its move follows years of complaints from passengers, who said that relying on personal devices left them with drained batteries, awkward viewing angles, and patchy Wi-Fi.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Their mustaches are patchy, and even though they look stern they're probably only a few years older than Katherine and me.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
The rain is likely to be lighter and patchier in the Midlands, southern and east England with just a few millimetres expected and some areas could miss out altogether.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
"In some catchments where permafrost has become patchier, weathering-driven carbon uptake was large enough to offset or even exceed river CO2 emissions."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 20, 2026
And returns on investment have been patchier because of its aggressive spending.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Surveillance outside of farms was even patchier than on them, and bird flu tests have been hard to get.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024
Despite being undead, he’d grown into adulthood: his fur patchier, his whiskers more snarled, his eye socket wider.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
The true severity of the problem isn’t always easy to ascertain, because, almost by definition, things tend to be worst in the places where record-keeping is patchiest.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 25, 2015
The Collegiate Chorale lent the music an epic quality; still, its twinkling palette aside, this was the patchiest and least satisfying of the distillations.
From New York Times ● Aug. 14, 2011
It didn’t take long for her to select the most crooked, most pathetic, patchiest pine tree in the bunch.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
Closely confined between the Rockies to the right and the Selkirks to the west, the river held undeviatingly to its general northwesterly course, with only the patchiest of flats on either side.
From Down the Columbia by Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome) Freeman
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.
