From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishricketyrick‧et‧y /ˈrɪkəti/ adjective CONDITION/STATE OF somethinga rickety structure or piece of furniture is in very bad condition, and likely to break easily a rickety old wooden chair a rickety bridge► see thesaurus at weak
Examples from the Corpus
rickety• The staircase was old and rickety.• It was a rather rickety affair that creaked embarrassingly when I sat down in it and ever after when I moved.• a rickety bamboo fence• In the early 1970s, Ford introduced a rickety compact called the Maverick.• On icy winter mornings, they bathe in foot tubs before the open flame of a rickety gas heater.• And despite the rickety infrastructure, computer networks are growing fast.• They sat around the card table on rickety old chairs.• A blur of rickety shops does heavy business seven days a week.• It evokes a precarious world which is so rickety that it may, at any time, collapse.• They rode in the rickety wagon across the prairie until they reached a railroad track.• Suddenly, borne across the bridge on the muddy tide, came a rickety wooden construction like a toolshed.• We climbed up two flights of rickety wooden stairs.Origin rickety (1600-1700) rickets 