Standard Lemma guide

ticky-tacky

adj · noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Made of this material; cheaply built, of low quality.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cruddy, lousy, shoddy, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap, cheap and nasty, cheapshit, cheesy, chintzy, coffee-and, crap, crappo, crappy, craptastic, crapperific, craptabulous, craptacular, crummy, dogwater, drecky, flimsy, fourth-rate, gash, garbage, god-awful, inferior, low, low-grade, low-quality, low-rent, made in China, mid, naughty, one-star, poor, poor man's, pound-shop, punk, rinky-dink, ropy, rubbish, sad, schlocky, scrubby, second-rate, slazy, slight, slim, subpar, shit, shite, shitty, substandard, ticky-tacky, tenth-rate, third-rate, tin-pot, trash, trashy, under par, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Inferior, minor, trivial.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: poor man's, streets behind, ignorable, trifling, BTEC, cheapie, cullionly, daddocky, inferior, less than, nonsuperior, pound-shop, second best, suckworthy, sucky, ticky-tacky, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, insignificant, like a fart in a windstorm, meager, mean, minor, miserable, negligible, nothingburger, nondescript, null, paltry, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piddly, pissant, pissass, piteous, pitiful, pointless, silly, simple, slight, tin-pot, trivial, two-bit, unimportant, unweighty, vain, worthless, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Cheap, low-quality building material, especially as that used to make conventional suburban housing of a uniform design.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Probably reduplication of tacky. Apparently coined by Malvina Reynolds in the early 1960s (see quotation, below).