spindly
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of spindly
Explanation
Use the adjective spindly for people or objects that are thin and lanky. A newborn foal looks so vulnerable, with its spindly legs, but it's almost immediately able to stand up and walk. A spindle is a slim wooden rod used to spin wool, and spindly essentially means "like a spindle." You can use it to describe a skinny person's long, thin limbs, like a young ballerina's spindly arms or the spindly legs of an elementary school basketball team. Spindly objects tend to be fragile, too: "These spindly antique chairs make me nervous — I'll sit on the couch."
Vocabulary lists containing spindly
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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15 Synonyms for "Thin": An Eileen Ford (1922-2014) Tribute List
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Lyddie
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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:
It mixes images of parquet floors; spindly, naked trees; and Sol LeWitt-style stripes in a geometric composition that juxtaposes inside and out, black and white, relaxation and activity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
First spotted bounding across streets in Washington, the Seattle raccoon with an unusual, spindly shape and the scamper of a Tasmanian Devil has been seized on by the internet as a new hit meme.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
A spindly plastic tube extended from my forehead to the “Eye Spa” machine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2026
And it wasn’t lost on Rove that the spindly, excitable man narrating that story for them in a thick Hungarian accent “was once a 16-year-old picking up paving blocks and heaving them at Soviet tanks.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
But when his arms had turned to water and he could chop no more, he saw with alarm that he’d only managed to cut down two spindly birch saplings and a puny little spruce.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
The species Dictyota dichotoma becomes a bundle of thick, tangled rhizomes, while Furcellaria fastigiata comprises spindlier, daintier strands that look like nerve endings.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2018
"I wouldn't kiss him to save his life," declared Frances; "he's got the spindliest legs I ever saw."
From Miss Minerva and William Green Hill by Frances Boyd Calhoun
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.
