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Glite Dictionary
🛠️ Full of tools 🙄 Foolish or annoying
toolsy

toolsy

1 9.9
Having many tools and small machines like a workshop
  • adjective
  • /ˈtuːlzi/
  • Slang
: utilitario
  • The artist's design was toolsy, featuring a mix of gears and wrenches that added a unique touch.

Examples

  • His toolsy approach to fashion made him stand out in the crowd of sleek dressers.

  • She found his toolsy mannerisms charming, as they added a quirky vibe to their conversations.

  • Chris Mellen is clearly pandering to the beautiful, toolsy people of the world.

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Synonyms

geeky
vstoolsy
  • Informal
31 6.8

A person who likes technical topics like computers and does not seem fashionable

is about owning or resembling tools and awkward looks rather than subject interest

Surface Forms

toolsy positive

Morphology

toolsy = tool (semi-transparent) = tool + sy

Form is clearly 'tool' + colloquial adjectival -sy, but the specific sense ('having many tools' vs 'tool-like/awkward') is slang-driven and requires pragmatic inference rather than a single standard derivational meaning.

Etymology

The word toolsy can also be built from tool plus the ending -y, which means 'full of' (like in hairy). So toolsy can mean 'full of tools' or looking tool-like, as when a garage or belt is crowded with equipment.