rocky
1 Americanadjective
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rockier,
comparative
-
rockiest
superlative
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inclined or likely to rock; tottering; shaky; unsteady.
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difficult or uncertain; full of hazards or obstacles.
a business with a rocky future.
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physically unsteady or weak, as from sickness.
adjective
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consisting of or abounding in rocks
a rocky shore
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hard or unyielding
rocky determination
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hard like rock
rocky muscles
adjective
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weak, shaky, or unstable
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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
If a ship sails, that means the conditions are safe enough to travel—however rocky the water may feel, according to Roussos.
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
At The Roaches, a dramatic rocky landscape area in the Peak District, fire broke out in June.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
I stood up again and looked at the sea grass that bent itself over the rocky road.
From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff
While those early investors saw sizable paper gains when SpaceX went public, it’s been a rockier ride since then.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
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
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
As he moved southward, the skirts of the hills were rockier and the saplings fewer.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
The past year—which included parent company Paramount’s controversial merger with Skydance Media, and the installment of Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor in chief—has been one of the rockiest in 60 Minutes’ decadeslong history.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
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
Tennessee football hit the rockiest of bottoms in late January 2021.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 23, 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
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.
