sketchy
Americanadjective
-
sketchier,
comparative
-
sketchiest
superlative
adjective
-
characteristic of a sketch; existing only in outline
-
superficial or slight
-
informal uncertain or unreliable
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of sketchy
Explanation
Something sketchy is incomplete: it includes the major points but lacks detail. If a political candidate avoids going into detail about her political views, you might say her platform is sketchy. A sketch is a quick drawing that doesn't have a lot of detail. That definition should help you remember that sketchy things are incomplete. A sketchy speech from the President will outline some important ideas but be short on specifics. A sketchy plan for the weekend would be "Let's go out to eat." That's sketchy because it has the general idea but no specifics, such as the time or place.
Vocabulary lists containing sketchy
Whirligig
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Down and Across
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The Boys Who Challenged Hitler
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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:
Another pet peeve for many are sketchy cycling lanes in a city where 18 percent of all trips are made by bike.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
He was in molt, a sketchy splotch of red and black while he waited for his new plumage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
“People will be like, ‘I don’t go to downtown anymore, it’s so sketchy now, my car got broken into last time and I feel weird letting a girl walk to a car by herself.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
One way to make this less of a sketchy move is to check in first.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
They were at You Gelato Be Kidding!, a sketchy little shop that had somehow become their favorite place to get dessert in the intensity of the last three weeks.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Meanwhile, El Niño has helped wash away sand from Newport Beach, making most dangerous surf spot—the Wedge—even sketchier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
When my parents divorced, things became much sketchier for my mom, and I did live with her for the first part.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2024
Omicron’s impact is difficult to gauge in other parts of the world, where data are often sketchier.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 25, 2022
But it is also about the narrative of a community in rapid flux: amid the upheaval, is a free apartment a glitch from the sketchier past, something to be rectified in the name of progress?
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2019
Naturally, Europe and its many loops were well-defined, but farther afield things got sketchier.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
He messaged Lutz about his experiences: “It was definitely the sketchiest thing I have ever had to do.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
Huge sums of money are now available for the sketchiest of projects, from "blue hydrogen" to the sea-bed mining of rare-earth minerals.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2021
“The majority gives only the sketchiest of reasons for reversing Teague’s watershed exception,” Kagan wrote.
From Slate ● May 17, 2021
Over two recording sessions for Columbia Records in early 1959, Davis would hand out the sketchiest of outlines for the music and leave the rest to extemporization.
From Washington Post ● May 25, 2020
Their skippers had the sketchiest idea of what constituted proper clearance papers and why such papers must agree with their present voyage.
From Pan-Islam by G. Wyman (George Wyman) Bury
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.
