rinky-dink

[ ring-kee-dingk ]

adjective

1. inconsequential, amateurish, or of generally inferior quality; small-time:

   a rinky-dink college; He plays with some rinky-dink team.

2. outmoded or shabby; backward; antiquated:

   a rinky-dink airline.

noun

1. a person or thing that is rinky-dink.

Word History and Origins

Origin of rinky-dink¹

1910–15; rhyming compound (perhaps based on alteration and nasalization of rickety ); ricky-tick

Example Sentences

They were rewarded with three works by Puccini, alongside Henry Mancini's rinky-dink Pink Panther theme, and the traditional programme of sea shanties and patriotic songs like Jerusalem and Rule, Britannia!

From BBC

They had me in the SS Mooch, which was a rinky-dink rowboat.

From Salon

The film starts in the characters’ present with Art and Patrick facing off at the 2019 Phil’s Tire Town Challenge in New Rochelle, N.Y., a surprisingly rinky-dink backdrop for all of the fraught flashbacks to come.

From Los Angeles Times

The whole operation seems charmingly homespun, or, if you’re a reporter, annoyingly rinky-dink.

From Slate

Maybe rinky-dink Cook Out is destined to be the underdog in a world in which every leisure business wants to attract the wealthiest customers possible.

From Slate

Related Words

• battered
• broken-down
• crumbling
• damaged
• decaying
• decrepit
• derelict
• dingy
• in ruins
• neglected
• ramshackle
• rickety
• run down
• seedy
• shabby
• unkempt