🧀 Stringy or sticky 👎 Very poor quality

ropy

9.3

Of very poor quality and not good

adjective
/ˈrəʊpi/

: de mala calidad

And I'll be honest, is it looking a bit ropy there?

Examples

Did it happen when he understood that he didn't intend to dedicate his life to transforming the ropy patches of burn victims?

Fiction book (2001)
He infected the air around her with his cheap, ropy Havana stogies.

Fiction book (1994)
The food at that restaurant was really ropy and didn't taste good.
Many of his ideas were ropy and failed to impress the audience.
The movie received ropy reviews for its poor storyline and execution.

Synonyms

lousy

vsropy

Informal

562 4.1

Very bad or mean and not liked by people

is similar but more specifically marks low quality without emotion

crappy

vsropy

NSFW

176 7.5

Very bad or of low quality

is the milder informal way to say something is not good

crummy

vsropy

Informal

56 6.7

Low quality and unpleasant

is similar but slightly more colloquial and regional in usage

cheesy

vsropy

Informal

32 4.3

Looks low quality and cheaply made, like a plastic toy

is more neutral, focusing on poor overall quality rather than taste

sucky

vsropy

Informal

23 9.3

Very bad or disappointing to experience

is the British informal label focusing on poor material quality

atrocious

vsropy

19 7.0

Being very bad and of low quality

is less extreme and more conversational in tone

wretched

vsropy

14 5.7

In very bad condition and of very poor quality

is more about low quality than about general misery

cruddy

vsropy

Informal

4 6.0

Dirty and not good quality

is cleaner in sense, focusing mainly on poor quality not dirt

woeful

vsropy

4 5.5

Very bad in quality or condition

is similar but used more commonly in everyday informal talk

craptastic

vsropy

NSFW

2 9.9

Very bad in quality but so silly it is almost funny

is similar but usually used without ironic exaggeration

ropey

vsropy

1 9.2

Poor in quality and not good enough

is the British informal form spelled with a single letter

really sucky

vsropy

Slang

1 8.4

Very bad and disappointing to experience

is milder, indicating general poor quality without strong emphasis

crumby

vsropy

Informal

1 7.0

Poor quality and disappointing

is similar but emphasises overall poor quality rather than disappointment

drossy

vsropy

1 9.4

Containing a lot of useless or low-value material

is broader, applying to anything that is of low quality

poopy

vsropy

Baby Talk

1 8.8

Not as good as expected and a bit upsetting

is less childish and more general in informal criticism

poopie

vsropy

Informal

1 9.2

An informal word used to say something is bad or low quality

is the British informal term focusing specifically on poor quality

rubbishy

vsropy

7.0

Cheap and poorly made

is similar but more tied to general unsatisfactory condition

poorish

vsropy

Informal

4.6

Not very good in quality or condition

is stronger, meaning clearly very poor rather than just a little bad

How Good

good

∞ 1.0

mediocre

109 4.8

poor

838 1.0

ropy

9.3

awful

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

ropy positive

Morphology

ropy = rope (opaque) = rope + y

Although formed as 'rope' + '-y' in form, the British informal sense 'very poor quality' is idiomatic and not deducible from 'rope' by an average learner.

Etymology

Ropy comes from rope and the ending -y, and in British slang it means 'very poor' or disappointing. A helpful way to remember this is to think of an old, worn rope that is weak and unreliable, so calling something 'ropy' says it is low quality.