sketchy
Americanadjective
-
sketchier,
comparative
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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:
The hill is the Duke of Richmond’s driveway, a narrow lane taking in nine surprisingly sketchy turns, a bit more than a mile long, ascending the grounds of Goodwood Estate in West Sussex.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Details of Tuesday's arrest remain sketchy, but police confirmed operatives from its Force Intelligence Department and Intelligence Response Team were involved.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
One way to make this less of a sketchy move is to check in first.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
In comments on the Times article, some Platner supporters declared that his sketchy past, including the Fifield allegations, makes him seem more like a man of the people.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
The various accounts that survive, though sketchy, broadly agree that Corax was the first person to set down precepts for the art of persuasion.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
He has stayed here even as this stretch of Lankershim Boulevard became sketchier, even as the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to lay off all his employees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2023
Omicron’s impact is difficult to gauge in other parts of the world, where data are often sketchier.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 25, 2022
Getting there requires one of the sketchier boot-packs I’ve ever done, along an icy, knife-edge ridge where the prospect of a catastrophic fall looms large.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2021
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
I told Annabeth and Grover about my latest dream, but the details got sketchier the more I tried to remember them.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
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
He spoke nothing but the truth, for he had but the sketchiest acquaintance with the composition of any kind of machinery.
From In Brief Authority by F. Anstey
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.
