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
-
consisting of or abounding in rocks
a rocky shore
-
hard or unyielding
rocky determination
-
hard like rock
rocky muscles
adjective
-
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:
September was rocky in 2021 and 2022, but during the past few years, the index has managed to finish the month higher, despite some hiccups here and there.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Little did she know, she’d be “holding on for dear life” on the rocky ferry from Naxos to Milos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
"A month ago there was nothing here. A rocky mountain, barely any trees, barely any shade. We're arriving now," new resident Reut Baran, 35, told AFP in front of her new home.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
John Mozeliak’s first foray into upgrading the Angels is off to a rocky start.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
There was a small clearing near the cliff, and a few rocky parts, but other than that it was quite uninteresting.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
Some systems could produce larger planets, rockier worlds, or perhaps more planets overall.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
Not helping: The first night was rockier than my recent trans-Atlantic crossing on a cruise ship, something Amtrak employees blamed on the condition of the tracks from Nebraska into Colorado.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
But it’s been a rockier road than they had hoped.
From Salon ● Nov. 13, 2025
If it doesn’t, the economy could face even rockier times.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2025
The path is still pretty wide, wide enough for horses, but the terrain around us is getting rockier, the path twistier.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
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
It was one of the rockiest starts for a wide release of Android yet, and hopefully, history doesn’t repeat itself with the Pixel 7 launch right around the corner.
From The Verge ● Sep. 6, 2022
After years of some of the rockiest school-bus service that Seattle kids have ever experienced, the district is now looking at bids on a new contract for school-bus service.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 17, 2021
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
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.
