TACKY
What does "TACKY" mean?
Cheap, gaudy, or in poor taste; or slightly sticky to the touch.
Meanings
- Showing poor taste or quality; gaudy, cheap, or tasteless. The hotel lobby was all tacky gold mirrors and plastic palms. informal
- Slightly sticky or adhesive, as paint or glue that is not yet dry. Wait until the varnish is no longer tacky before sanding.
Did you know?
- Before it meant 'in poor taste', a 'tacky' was a worn-out, low-grade horse in 1800s American slang - the cheapness of the animal slid sideways into the cheapness of the decor.
Word origin
The 'sticky' sense is of uncertain origin, from 'tack' (a sticky quality). The 'tasteless' sense comes from 19th-century U.S. slang 'tacky' for a worn-out horse, later a shabby or low-class person.
Remember it
TACKY shares its root with 'tack' - both the sticky kind and the cheap thumbtack you'd never frame art with.
A little poem
Glitter on glue, the wet wall keeps your hand-
two kinds of tacky, neither one was planned.
couplet
Wordplay
- The wet-paint sign was tacky in every sense - bad font, and I couldn't let go of it.
What it teaches
Taste and glue have this in common: both leave a mark you didn't mean to.
Quick facts
What does TACKY mean?
Cheap, gaudy, or in poor taste; or slightly sticky to the touch.
Is TACKY a valid word?
Yes — TACKY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is TACKY?
TACKY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does TACKY come from?
The 'sticky' sense is of uncertain origin, from 'tack' (a sticky quality). The 'tasteless' sense comes from 19th-century U.S. slang 'tacky' for a worn-out horse, later a shabby or low-class person.
What can TACKY teach us?
Taste and glue have this in common: both leave a mark you didn't mean to.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.