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spindly

spindly

11 6.2
Long, thin, and looking weak, often said about plants or people
  • adjective
  • /ˈspɪndli/
translation icon : delgado
  • The door opens... and there, sitting behind his desk is this spindly little man... with these bottle-thick glasses.
  • spindly legs
  • spindly tree

And so those guys tend to have spindly legs and huge torsos.

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Examples

  • The plant grew tall and spindly, struggling to reach the sunlight.

  • And so those guys tend to have spindly legs and huge torsos.

  • The stage manager and his assistant pull at his spindly legs and arms.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • His eyes fill with courage, and he charges toward the spindly bridge that leads to his master and friends.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • It had spindly arms and legs.

  • I climb the spider trees and sleep within the leaves among the spindly branches.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • The cot, a card table with spindly legs, and the beach chair were all his furniture.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Here and there, green, spindly leaves poked up through last year's grass clumps.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • We tie up at a long, spindly pier jutting out from Pilottown.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • The Dugbo practitioner was a spindly little man dressed in brown rags and boots of uncured leather.

    Fiction book (1993)

Synonyms

lanky
vsspindly
19 4.0

A person who is tall and thin with long arms and legs that look a little awkward

shows thinness with clear fragility rather than only awkwardness
gangly
vsspindly
9 6.1

Being tall and thin with long, awkward arms and legs

emphasizes delicate weakness and fragility rather than clumsy appearance
wispy
vsspindly
7 3.8

Thin and light in form, like a small person or light cloth

conveys thinness with actual weakness or fragile structure
spidery
vsspindly
4 6.4

Thin and delicate like a spider's web or legs

indicates structural weakness and long thin form rather than web likeness
rangy
vsspindly
4 7.2

Tall and thin with long arms and legs

adds sense of weakness and fragility beyond mere tall thinness
lank
vsspindly
1 7.4

Long, thin, and limp, often about hair or a person's body

means long thin with structural fragility rather than just limpness
spindling
vsspindly
7.5

Thin and weak in a way that makes it likely to break

emphasizes length and thinness rather than height focus
spindle-legged
vsspindly
8.5

A thing like a chair or bird with long, thin legs that look delicate

applies to overall long thin structure rather than just legs
spindle-shanked
vsspindly
9.0

A person or animal with long thin legs

describes the whole fragile long form not only the lower limbs
unsturdy
vsspindly
4.8

Likely to wobble or break, like a weak chair

describes long thin form that looks weak rather than general instability

Antonyms

76 2.1

Strong and solid so it does not break easily

1 4.7

A person or animal who has a short, strong body

How Thin

gaunt
9 7.3
spindly
11 6.2
thin
314 1.0
lanky
19 4.0
slender
57 1.4

Surface Forms

spindly positive

Morphology

spindly = spindle (transparent) = spindle + y

The adjective is formed by the productive adjectival suffix '-y' on 'spindle', so a learner who knows 'spindle' can infer 'spindly' as 'like a spindle' (long and thin).

Etymology

The word spindly comes from spindle, a thin rod used for spinning thread, and the ending -y means 'like'. So spindly means 'like a spindle', which is why we use it for things that are long, thin, and often weak.