Link Centre Dictionary

wonky

UK/ˈwɒŋ.kɪ/ US/ˈwɑŋ.ki/ uncommon informal uk

adjective

1.

turned or twisted toward one side

  • “a...youth with a gorgeous red necktie all awry” G.K.Chesterton
  • “his wig was, as the British say, skew-whiff”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

inclined to shake as from weakness or defect

  • “a rickety table”
  • “a wobbly chair with shaky legs”
  • “the ladder felt a little wobbly”
  • “the bridge still stands though one of the arches is wonky”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

Phrases

  • wonky hole

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.