rinky-tink

American  

[ring-kee-tingk] / ˈrɪŋ kiˌtɪŋk /

noun

1. ricky-tick.

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Usage

What does rinky-tink mean? Rinky-tink means corny or outdated. It can be used to describe the kinds of things that seem a bit old-fashioned and silly because they come from another era.The similar term rinky-dink can be used to mean the same thing, but it more commonly means inferior, amateurish, or small-time.The term ricky-tick can also be used to mean the same thing as rinky-tink.Both rinky-tink and ricky-tick can also be (and were originally) used to describe the mechanical, repetitive style and beat of ragtime or early swing music. Both terms can also be used as nouns to refer to such music.Example: His act is a bit rinky-tink, if you ask me, but I guess that’s what his audience wants to see.

Etymology

Origin of rinky-tink

1960–65; perhaps blend of ricky-tick and rinky-dink

Example Sentences

Most specifically it recalls François Truffaut’s “Shoot the Piano Player,” about a traumatized concert pianist hiding out playing rinky-tink jazz in a dive bar, when gangsters arrive to threaten his family.

From Los Angeles Times

No one perishes, and the gang war turns to open revelry when the combatants, richly creamed but unbowed, lay down their arms and join in a rinky-tink anthem to brotherhood.

From Time Magazine Archive

He ambles in to the rinky-tink beat of Joseph Lamb's rag, Bohemia, a little guy in a shiny satin shirt and crushed-velvet breeches.

From Time Magazine Archive

Most of them�foot-pumped jobs with no concert-grand pretensions�were being played for the sheer rinky-tink fun of it by people who own either vintage instruments rescued from dusty oblivion or brand-new 1962 models, bought in a shiny showroom.

From Time Magazine Archive