rinky-dink

[ring-kee-dingk]

adjective

1. inconsequential, amateurish, or of generally inferior quality; small-time.

   a rinky-dink college; He plays with some rinky-dink team.

2. outmoded or shabby; backward; antiquated.

   a rinky-dink airline.

noun

1. a person or thing that is rinky-dink.

Word History and Origins

Origin of rinky-dink¹

1910–15; rhyming compound (perhaps based on alteration and nasalization of rickety ); ricky-tick

Example Sentences

Over the next 40 years, the Sundance Film Festival would change from a rinky-dink, small-time gathering into a major player in the festival circuit, on par with revered institutions like the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival.

From Salon

Kirk indeed turned Turning Point USA from a rinky-dink right-wing nonprofit founded before he was 20 into a gargantuan policy-altering machine, famous for raking in oodles of capital from eager right-wing donors.

From Slate

He had the hair and the rinky-dink scandals and that one cameo in Home Alone 2.

From Slate

They were rewarded with three works by Puccini, alongside Henry Mancini's rinky-dink Pink Panther theme, and the traditional programme of sea shanties and patriotic songs like Jerusalem and Rule, Britannia!

From BBC

They had me in the SS Mooch, which was a rinky-dink rowboat.

From Salon

Related Words

• battered 
• broken-down 
• crumbling www.thesaurus.com
• damaged www.thesaurus.com
• decaying www.thesaurus.com
• decrepit 
• derelict 
• dingy 
• in ruins www.thesaurus.com
• neglected www.thesaurus.com
• ramshackle 
• rickety 
• run down 
• seedy 
• shabby 
• unkempt