Did you know?
The Varied Meanings of Sketchy
A sketch is a rough drawing usually done as an initial draft in contrast to a finished work. The word sketch suggests imperfection and a lack of refinement. It comes from the Dutch word schets and ultimately from the Italian verb schizzare, an imitative verb meaning "to splash."
Unsurprisingly, the adjective sketchy originally described something relating to or resembling a sketch, as in "a sketchy portrait." But because sketches are by nature rough and ill-defined, sketchy soon came to mean "wanting in completeness, clearness, or substance," as in "a sketchy understanding" or "sketchy details."
What lacks completeness, clearness, or substance is also subject to doubt or challenge, and sketchy went on to develop uses applying to what is questionable or iffy, either for physically obvious qualities or for something less tangible. In sports we see this sense of sketchy applied to a track or surface that is poorly maintained, as in "a sketchy track," and in broader use it is applied to streets and neighborhoods that can also be described as seedy, as in "a sketchy part of town."
The adjective has more recently extended in use to describe someone who creates an impression of unsavoriness, or something that comes from an untrustworthy source or is itself untrustworthy, as in "a sketchy dude" or "a scheme that sounds sketchy."
Examples of sketchy in a Sentence
Benjamin Vanhoose, Peoplemag, 8 May 2024
The original Let It Be looked grainy and dim because it was shot for TV on 16-mm film, then blown up to 35-mm for theaters, with sketchy sound.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 7 May 2024
This is one aspect of her origin story that will likely be familiar to fans, who have over the years gleaned a sketchy timeline of her life, from difficult childhood to ’90s notoriety to a diagnosis of late-stage Lyme disease that sidelined her for years following Le Tigre’s dissolution in 2007.
—TIME, 7 May 2024
The report also provided a few sketchy details about the ongoing quest to find what had been lost, revealing that, of the two thousand or so missing or damaged objects, only about three hundred and fifty had so far been recovered—the majority of them with the assistance of Gradel.
—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 6 May 2024
In March 2023, Kelce made his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live, and made a surprise cameo in October on the sketchy comedy show.
—Michelle Lee, Peoplemag, 9 Apr. 2024
Some formulas in this niche sector of the supplement industry make use of sketchy sales tactics to market ineffective products.
—Andrew Price, Discover Magazine, 3 Apr. 2024
After two sketchy hires and a string of management mistakes, the Cardinal made a shrewd move Monday and charged Kyle Smith with resuscitating its dormant men’s basketball program following the dismissal of Jerod Haase.
—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 25 Mar. 2024
For complicated educational, economic and union-rules reasons, there already were too few nurses in California, a problem that has persisted for decades, well before the deadly virus spread and the price of a tiny cottage in a formerly sketchy neighborhood soared into the seven figures.
—The Editorial Board, Orange County Register, 23 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sketchy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to sketchy
Dictionary Entries Near sketchy
Cite this Entry
“Sketchy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sketchy. Accessed 13 May. 2024.
Copy Citation
Share