shonky
Britishadjective
-
of dubious integrity or legality
-
unreliable; unsound
Etymology
Origin of shonky
C19: perhaps from Yiddish shonniker or from sh ( oddy ) + ( w ) onky
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.
Jarrell-Searcy would go to a public gym before 5am, work a 12-hour ambulance shift transporting non-emergency patients to hospital, before travelling to training at night under shonky floodlights.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
"It's embarrassing that a supposedly world-leading country has such a shonky infrastructure," she says.
From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2021
The Guardian declared the movie "toe-curlingly, teeth-furringly, pillow-bitingly ghastly," while the Daily Mail said that the film "takes the romance of the century and turns it into a cheap, shonky and unintentionally hilarious filmus horribilis."
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2021
Now I don’t even hesitate, deploying the same shonky economics I’ve always used to justify spending.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2020
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 ● Feb. 20, 2020
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