shonky

/ ˈʃɒŋkɪ /

adjective

1. of dubious integrity or legality

2. unreliable; unsound

Word History and Origins

Origin of shonky¹

C19: perhaps from Yiddish shonniker or from _sh ( _oddy ) + ( _w ) _onky

Example Sentences

An external inquiry will be carried out at Dundee University, which is expected to highlight major management failures and a shonky IT system for student recruitment.

From BBC

"It's embarrassing that a supposedly world-leading country has such a shonky infrastructure," she says.

From BBC

Now I don’t even hesitate, deploying the same shonky economics I’ve always used to justify spending.

From The Guardian

Perhaps that overwhelmed feeling we have when facing this onslaught of content is what draws us to familiar tokens from childhood, shonky old stories and celluloid-scratched images that set the hippocampus tingling.

From The Guardian

That 2016 movie’s subtitle, Dawn of Justice, was always something of a shonky afterthought that essentially gave away the movie’s ending before we had seen the film’s opening frame.

From The Guardian