Rickety
adjective
Not strong or stable, and likely to break.
Be careful climbing up to the attic, the stairs are quite rickety.
Often appears as...
- rickety stairs
- rickety chair
adjective
Suffering from rickets, a disease that makes bones soft and weak.
Some children in poverty-stricken regions can end up with rickety legs due to malnutrition.
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Not strong or stable, and likely to break.
Be careful climbing up to the attic, the stairs are quite rickety.
Often appears as...
- rickety stairs
- rickety chair
adjective
Suffering from rickets, a disease that makes bones soft and weak.
Some children in poverty-stricken regions can end up with rickety legs due to malnutrition.
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Physical Instability
Use 'rickety' to describe objects that seem unreliable due to physical weakness or age.
The rickety bridge swayed ominously in the wind.
Pro Tip 2/3Visual Impression
'Rickety' often implies that something looks old, worn, or on the verge of collapse.
The rickety barn was a landmark of the abandoned farmstead.
Pro Tip 3/3Metaphorical Use
Sometimes 'rickety' is used metaphorically to describe things lacking stability, like plans or relationships.
Their rickety alliance was based on very little common ground.
Pro Tip 1/3Physical Instability
Use 'rickety' to describe objects that seem unreliable due to physical weakness or age.
The rickety bridge swayed ominously in the wind.
Pro Tip 2/3Visual Impression
'Rickety' often implies that something looks old, worn, or on the verge of collapse.
The rickety barn was a landmark of the abandoned farmstead.
Pro Tip 3/3Metaphorical Use
Sometimes 'rickety' is used metaphorically to describe things lacking stability, like plans or relationships.
Their rickety alliance was based on very little common ground.
Pro Tip 1/3Physical Instability
Use 'rickety' to describe objects that seem unreliable due to physical weakness or age.
The rickety bridge swayed ominously in the wind.
Pro Tip 2/3Visual Impression
'Rickety' often implies that something looks old, worn, or on the verge of collapse.
The rickety barn was a landmark of the abandoned farmstead.
Pro Tip 3/3Metaphorical Use
Sometimes 'rickety' is used metaphorically to describe things lacking stability, like plans or relationships.
Their rickety alliance was based on very little common ground.
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Video examples
How will we survive when...
But how are you going to do this, given the decades of hostility? One way might be Each side agrees to accept the fundamental premises of the other. Accept that nuclear power is safe and carbon-free, and that uranium mines can be hideously dirty and that putting large volumes of toxic waste on rickety trains
Video examples
Alison Wright: Portraits...
see it's it's rather rickety and I don't think you're really supposed to have plastic seats in the middle everyone seems to be gripping for a reason because it's the most potholed Road I've ever been on but we were coming around a corner and I've been on these buses a million times and you're like oh that
Video examples
John Hunter: Teaching...
She's a technology leader and instructional leader. But in her office, there's this old wooden, weather-worn table, kitchen table -- peeling green paint, it's kind of rickety. And I said, "Pam, you're such a modern, cutting-edge person. Why is this old table in your office?"
Video examples
Michael Pollan: A...
Cows graze one day. They move, OK? They graze everything down, intensive grazing. He waits three days, and then we towed in something called the Eggmobile. The Eggmobile is a very rickety contraption -- it looks like a prairie schooner made out of boards --
Video examples
Can VR help create...
woman doing she sees the world just like we do there is a floor that she feels she walks around she hears sounds she feels virtual touch but in her version of the world there's a chasm it's ten meters deep and we put a very rickety
Video examples
A plant's-eye view -...
minutes cows graze one day they move okay they graze everything down intensive intensive grazing he waits three days and then we towed in something called the egg mobile the egg mobile is a very rickety contraption it looks like a
Video examples
The myth of Zeus' test -...
even as their house transformed below. It grew larger and sprouted marble pillars and steps. Legends etched themselves onto its grand doors. Their rickety cottage had metamorphosed into a gleaming temple for the gods.
Video examples
What it takes to make...
and I did. Jumped out through the rainstorm, we went down this little muddy path, through a rickety metal door, inside a shack where a group of women were dancing with abandon.
Video examples
Aja Monet and phillip...
love-riot visions of our rising, risen, raised selves. The overcoming grace -- fires, bitter tongues, wise as rickety rocking chairs, suffering salt and sand skies.
Video examples
How India could pull off...
The air smelled smoky and sulfurous. I just stepped off a rickety train to Korba, deep in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh,
Video examples
How will we survive when...
But how are you going to do this, given the decades of hostility? One way might be Each side agrees to accept the fundamental premises of the other. Accept that nuclear power is safe and carbon-free, and that uranium mines can be hideously dirty and that putting large volumes of toxic waste on rickety trains
Video examples
Alison Wright: Portraits...
see it's it's rather rickety and I don't think you're really supposed to have plastic seats in the middle everyone seems to be gripping for a reason because it's the most potholed Road I've ever been on but we were coming around a corner and I've been on these buses a million times and you're like oh that
Video examples
John Hunter: Teaching...
She's a technology leader and instructional leader. But in her office, there's this old wooden, weather-worn table, kitchen table -- peeling green paint, it's kind of rickety. And I said, "Pam, you're such a modern, cutting-edge person. Why is this old table in your office?"
Video examples
Michael Pollan: A...
Cows graze one day. They move, OK? They graze everything down, intensive grazing. He waits three days, and then we towed in something called the Eggmobile. The Eggmobile is a very rickety contraption -- it looks like a prairie schooner made out of boards --
Video examples
Can VR help create...
woman doing she sees the world just like we do there is a floor that she feels she walks around she hears sounds she feels virtual touch but in her version of the world there's a chasm it's ten meters deep and we put a very rickety
Video examples
A plant's-eye view -...
minutes cows graze one day they move okay they graze everything down intensive intensive grazing he waits three days and then we towed in something called the egg mobile the egg mobile is a very rickety contraption it looks like a
Video examples
The myth of Zeus' test -...
even as their house transformed below. It grew larger and sprouted marble pillars and steps. Legends etched themselves onto its grand doors. Their rickety cottage had metamorphosed into a gleaming temple for the gods.
Video examples
What it takes to make...
and I did. Jumped out through the rainstorm, we went down this little muddy path, through a rickety metal door, inside a shack where a group of women were dancing with abandon.
Video examples
Aja Monet and phillip...
love-riot visions of our rising, risen, raised selves. The overcoming grace -- fires, bitter tongues, wise as rickety rocking chairs, suffering salt and sand skies.
Video examples
How India could pull off...
The air smelled smoky and sulfurous. I just stepped off a rickety train to Korba, deep in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh,
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
F. Sionil Jose
Filipino Writer
I find it always pleasurable talking with young people, particularly those aspiring to be writers, out of nostalgia, and because I've always felt that we oldies can learn so much from them and draw from them inspiration in our flagging and rickety years.
Quote examples
Valerie June
American Musician
Saturdays are set for antique shops. Williamsburg in Brooklyn has some good ones. I get in there and start meddling around with dusty boxes and rickety, worn-in stuff. I like it when I find something with someone else's name on it.
Quote examples
John Updike
American Novelist
My golf is so delicate, so tenuously wired together with silent inward prayers, exhortations and unstable visualizations, that the sheer pressure of an additional pair of eyes crumbles the whole rickety structure into rubble.
Quote examples
Isa Guha
English Celebrity
As part of the England women's cricket team, we had our own rickety period at the end of 2005 through to the beginning of 2007. Learning from our mistakes, by 2009 we were the best team in the world.
Quote examples
Nancy Sinatra
American Musician
After 50, the rock 'n' roll road is a little absurd. It's very difficult to play these little places. You're out there on a rickety old bus with no place to shower.
Quote examples
Louis C. K.
American Comedian
Being popular with an audience is a very rickety ladder to be on.
Quote examples
F. Sionil Jose
Filipino Writer
I find it always pleasurable talking with young people, particularly those aspiring to be writers, out of nostalgia, and because I've always felt that we oldies can learn so much from them and draw from them inspiration in our flagging and rickety years.
Quote examples
Valerie June
American Musician
Saturdays are set for antique shops. Williamsburg in Brooklyn has some good ones. I get in there and start meddling around with dusty boxes and rickety, worn-in stuff. I like it when I find something with someone else's name on it.
Quote examples
John Updike
American Novelist
My golf is so delicate, so tenuously wired together with silent inward prayers, exhortations and unstable visualizations, that the sheer pressure of an additional pair of eyes crumbles the whole rickety structure into rubble.
Quote examples
Isa Guha
English Celebrity
As part of the England women's cricket team, we had our own rickety period at the end of 2005 through to the beginning of 2007. Learning from our mistakes, by 2009 we were the best team in the world.
Quote examples
Nancy Sinatra
American Musician
After 50, the rock 'n' roll road is a little absurd. It's very difficult to play these little places. You're out there on a rickety old bus with no place to shower.
Quote examples
Louis C. K.
American Comedian
Being popular with an audience is a very rickety ladder to be on.
Example 1 of 6
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