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Glite Dictionary
🪑 Unstable or shaky 🧓 Physically weak
rickety

rickety

2 7.0
Physically weak, often with shaky or bent legs
  • adjective
  • /ˈrɪkəti/
translation icon : endeble
  • There he was now, levering himself up on those rickety bones, looking toward her, seeing what she was doing, looking away.
  • rickety old
  • rickety table
  • rickety legs

Examples

  • The fawns looked weak, barely able to edge downhill on their rickety legs.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • I hope this happens before I get too old and rickety to pick those cherry tomatoes.

    Blog text (18)

  • Her rickety legs pumped ferociously as she took the lead.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Sitting at her rickety table, we ate TV dinners or boiled eggs and toast and told each other stories.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Often a boy comes in now, a rickety boy with bowed legs, holding a bowl of thin milk in his translucent hands, the bowl held gingerly so as not to spill.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • BROWNSTONE - DAY ERNIE (70's), a rickety Black man in work boots, looks baffled by a tangled mess of wires protruding from a wall.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • After years of hard work, her knees had become rickety, making it difficult to climb stairs.

  • The elderly man's rickety hands trembled as he tried to hold the cup without spilling.

  • As he aged, his once strong legs became rickety, struggling to support his weight.

Synonyms

weak
vsrickety
524 1.0

Not strong in body or muscles and easily tired

is narrower, stressing shaky or unstable bodily parts rather than broad weakness
frail
vsrickety
52 4.1

Being physically weak and breaking easily

is about bodily weakness with an emphasis on unstable or shaky parts
wobbly
vsrickety
36 3.6

Unsteady and likely to move from side to side

covers bodily frailty but with more emphasis on weakness causing instability
sickly
vsrickety
30 2.6

Often ill and looking weak or pale

describes physical frailty with emphasis on shaky or unstable parts
feeble
vsrickety
25 3.9

Physically or mentally weak and low in energy

leans more toward describing a fragile or shaky physical part
infirm
vsrickety
  • Formal
9 6.1

Weak in body, often because of old age or illness

is similar but often highlights a fragile or unstable body part
decrepit
vsrickety
9 7.0

A living thing that is very weak and thin from old age or long illness

is similar but more about a part's instability than general worn condition
debilitated
vsrickety
1 7.0

Very weak and lacking energy because of illness or injury

often points to fragile or unstable body parts rather than illness effects
debile
vsrickety
  • Archaic
9.9

Weak in the body and having little strength

focuses more on fragile limbs or parts rather than overall low vitality
doddery
vsrickety
8.9

Being weak, unsteady, or slow in thinking because of old age

focuses more narrowly on fragile body parts rather than mental decline

Antonyms

strong
∞ 1.0

Having great physical power or being solid enough to resist force

How Frail

decrepit
9 6.6
infirm
  • Formal
9 6.1
rickety
2 7.0
feeble
27 3.7
delicate
188 3.8

Surface Forms

rickety positive

Morphology

rickety = rickets (semi-transparent) = ricket + y

Formed by suffixation of '-y' to ricket/rickets; the link to physical frailty is historically motivated by the disease 'rickets' and is not immediately obvious to learners unfamiliar with that term.

Etymology

Rickety comes from the word rickets, a bone disease that makes legs weak and bowed, especially in children. So when we call a person rickety we picture them as 'physically weak or frail', like someone affected by that disease.