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wonky - 3 dictionary results

won⋅ky

  [wong-kee]
Use wonky in a Sentence
–adjective, -ki⋅er, -ki⋅est.
1. British Slang.
a. shaky, groggy, or unsteady.
b. unreliable; not trustworthy.
2. Slang. stupid; boring; unattractive.
Origin:
1920–25; perh. var. of dial. wanky, equiv. to wank(le) (ME wankel, OE wancol; see wench ) + -y 1 ; def. 1 prob. represents a different word (see wonk )
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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won·ky   (wŏng'kē)   
adj.   won·ki·er, won·ki·est Chiefly British
  1. Shaky; feeble.
  2. Wrong; awry.

[Probably alteration of dialectal wanky, alteration of wankle, from Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol, unsteady.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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wonky

/wong'kee/ adj. [from Australian slang] Yet another approximate synonym for broken. Specifically connotes a malfunction that produces behavior seen as crazy, humorous, or amusingly perverse. "That was the day the printer's font logic went wonky and everybody's listings came out in Tengwar." Also in `wonked out'. See funky, demented, bozotic.
Jargon File 4.2.0
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