rickety
Americanadjective
adjective
-
(of a structure, piece of furniture, etc) likely to collapse or break; shaky
-
feeble with age or illness; infirm
-
relating to, resembling, or afflicted with rickets
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rickety
Explanation
Something rickety — like an old shack — is shaky and likely to fall down because it's fragile. Some buildings are sturdy, solid, and strong. Others are rickety: rickety things might blow over from a slight breeze. Rickety things are poorly designed or have just become rickety because of aging. Rickety things tend to shake, which is a sign they might fall apart any second. If you put a heavy load in a rickety cart, you might lost your load!
Vocabulary lists containing rickety
Inside Out & Back Again
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Long Way Down
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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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.
I’m not one for vehicular envy, but while traveling a few weeks back, I couldn’t help but admire another man’s rickety Nissan Altima.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
But after this defeat, the fighter who once drove around Leeds in his rickety car trying to sell tickets can leave knowing he gave the sport everything he had.
From BBC • Feb. 21, 2026
But her conceit that the Inter-Con’s trajectory can constitute, as the book’s subtitle asserts, “a people’s history of Afghanistan,” is rickety at best.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 20, 2025
A two-story Craftsman ADU in Hollywood — formerly a rickety garage — is designed to provide office space, a gym and housing while preserving a lush garden.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2025
I strode up my two rickety steps with as much pride as I could summon.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
