dinky

[ ding-kee ]
See synonyms for dinky on Thesaurus.com
adjective,dink·i·er, dink·i·est.
  1. Informal. small, unimportant, unimpressive, or shabby: We stayed in a dinky old hotel.

  2. British Informal. fashionable; well dressed; smart.

noun,plural dink·ies.

Origin of dinky

1
1780–90; compare Scots dink neatly dressed, trim (of obscure origin); sense shift perhaps: trim > dainty > small > insignificant; see -y1

Words Nearby dinky

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use dinky in a sentence

  • I'm a good enough Yank to see if your dinky police is such an all-fired cute little bunch of wonder-workers as you say!

    Murder in Any Degree | Owen Johnson
  • I guess its free cruising ground for anybody who can afford to own a steam yacht, or even a common little dinky motorboat.

  • What fun is it to walk down into that dinky little village keeping step like convicts?

  • But I figured out: there's camp-meetin's an' socials up there, an' a nice, dinky, white shirt once in a way goes pretty good.

    The Trail of '98 | Robert W. Service

British Dictionary definitions for dinky

dinky

/ (ˈdɪŋkɪ) /


adjectivedinkier or dinkiest informal
  1. British small and neat; dainty

  2. US inconsequential; insignificant

Origin of dinky

1
C18 (in the sense: dainty): from dink

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012