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Definition of "ticky-tacky" [ticky-tacky]

  • Shoddy material, as for the construction of standardized housing. (noun)
  • Made of shoddy material; cheaply built. (adjective)
  • Marked by a mediocre uniformity of appearance or style: ticky-tacky rows of look-alike houses. (adjective)
  • Tawdry; tacky. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "ticky-tacky" in a sentence
  • "The monstrous and incredibly ugly development of ticky-tacky on Jocotepec´s east side reminds me of another place from my youth."
  • "The overall effect is to put a bureaucratic stranglehold on attempts of protest organizers to give expression to the 1st amendment, so tying them up in ticky-tacky provisions, fines and possible jail time that only a masochist would organize a protest with a message that the city fathers don't want to hear."
  • "As you may know I have a fondness for the ticky-tacky known as Reality Television, I so love the term because it's so not anyone's reality I've ever known."