rocky
1 Americanadjective
-
rockier,
comparative
-
rockiest
superlative
-
inclined or likely to rock; tottering; shaky; unsteady.
-
difficult or uncertain; full of hazards or obstacles.
a business with a rocky future.
-
physically unsteady or weak, as from sickness.
adjective
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consisting of or abounding in rocks
a rocky shore
-
hard or unyielding
rocky determination
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hard like rock
rocky muscles
adjective
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weak, shaky, or unstable
-
informal (of a person) dizzy; sickly; nauseated
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of rocky1
First recorded in 1400–50; rock 1 + -y 1 ( def. )
Origin of rocky2
Explanation
Anything rocky is covered with rocks, like a rocky beach or hillside. You can also use rocky for something that moves in a bumpy or uneven manner, like a rocky ride in a Jeep. There's a figurative sense of rocky that means "difficult, rough, or up-and-down" like your rocky relationship with your sister or a struggling business's rocky future. This meaning comes from a combination of the "uneven and covered with rocks" definition and the verb rock, or "sway back and forth." The Rocky Mountains, which aren't actually all that rocky, were named for the local Native American people, called "the stone Sioux" by their Cree neighbors.
Vocabulary lists containing rocky
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:
For nearly 1,000 years, farmers have scratched out a living on this rocky island as soil, sheep and people have been blown over its treacherous cliffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Researchers identified four ice caps, along with rocky cliffs extending above the ice and glaciers flowing outward from the ice caps.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
"We've had lots of people say it's rocky, but it's Welsh and it's got lots of stuff behind it," he told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
With its rocky soil and lack of mineral wealth, it is currently the most powerful thing you can be in today’s climate: unexploitable.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
By their sides, the rocky children bent and stretched in a game that had no ending.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
Her biggest hit, the rockier Total Eclipse of the Heart, arrived six years later in 1983 - this time topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Yields on Treasurys had risen in recent days, with many traders wagering on higher inflation, and a rockier path to lower interest rates this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
Their results show that either planet could be dominated by water-rich layers or by a far rockier structure.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 10, 2025
But it’s been a rockier road than they had hoped.
From Salon ● Nov. 13, 2025
As he moved southward, the skirts of the hills were rockier and the saplings fewer.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
That is helping Weyerhaeuser ride out one of the rockiest periods for the forest-products industry in the past two decades.
From Barron's ● Dec. 16, 2025
But redemption truly will be judged in this series, and he got off to the rockiest of starts, missing his first six threes before finally splashing one in the fourth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2024
Kawai credits a loyal cadre of regular customers for supporting the restaurant during the rockiest days of the pandemic, when he and his small team produced a different three-course tasting menu weekly for takeout.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 5, 2022
It has also been one of the rockiest Android OS launches in the past few years.
From The Verge ● Jan. 13, 2022
It was gravelly near the water, rockiest at the lower end, and, from a mouse’s point of view, hilly.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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