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View synonyms for tacky

tacky

1

[ tak-ee ]

adjective

, tack·i·er, tack·i·est.
  1. sticky to the touch; adhesive.


tacky

2

[ tak-ee ]

adjective

, tack·i·er, tack·i·est.
  1. not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy.
  2. shabby in appearance; shoddy:

    a tacky, jerry-built housing development.

  3. crass; cheaply vulgar; tasteless; crude.
  4. gaudy; flashy; showy.

tacky

1

/ ˈtækɪ /

adjective

  1. slightly sticky or adhesive

    the varnish was still tacky



tacky

2

/ ˈtækɪ /

adjective

  1. shabby or shoddy
  2. ostentatious and vulgar
  3. (of a person) dowdy; seedy

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Derived Forms

  • ˈtackiness, noun
  • ˈtackily, adverb
  • ˈtackiness, noun

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Other Words From

  • tacki·ness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tacky1

First recorded in 1780–90; tack 1 + -y 1

Origin of tacky2

1880–85, Americanism; apparently identical with earlier tack(e)y small horse, pony, poor farmer; of obscure origin

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tacky1

C18: from tack 1(in the sense: stickiness)

Origin of tacky2

C19: from dialect tacky an inferior horse, of unknown origin

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Example Sentences

“All of the ideas were so awful and tacky so I said no,” she says.

Some of the sweaters he thought were true works of art, and some he thought were just tacky or funny.

The American Apparel adverts are deemed tacky and offensive because they dramatize, brazenly, the sex-drenched time we live in.

A brown tacky gleam of years of paint accumulation covers the three-story apartment.

However tacky, this was hardly the flagrant public obscenity Cohen alleges.

We looked like a tacky party as almost every one had on something borrowed or incongruous.

Thus cried the urchin, following close behind the party, upon his mountain-tacky.

Rounding and backing are best done after the glue has ceased to be tacky, but before it has set hard.

Although several of the formulas remained tacky for over a week, all dried thoroughly in the time allotted.

Cut off a slip of paper of the same size, put on some of the knotting, and when it is tacky, stick down the strengthening slip.

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