Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Chiefly British Evasive; shifty.
- adj. Chiefly British Unsound, unstable, and unreliable.
- adj. Chiefly British So risky as to require very deft handling.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Disposed to dodge; evasive; artful; cunning.
Wiktionary
- adj. evasive and shifty
- adj. unsound and unreliable
- adj. dishonest
- adj. risky
- adj. deviant
- adj. uncomfortable and weird
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of uncertain outcome; especially fraught with risk
- adj. marked by skill in deception
Etymologies
- dodge + -y. Derived from the verb dodge. First used in mid-19th century England. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The committee's operations hit the headlines late last year when MP David Maynier, the Democratic Alliance defence spokesman, went public with what he described as dodgy deals with countries that had poor human rights records.”
“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is part of a group of investors that sent a letter demanding Bank of America buy back some $47 billion in dodgy mortgages.”
The Huffington Post: Bailout Oversight Panel Slams Obama Administration Over Foreclosure Crisis
“Something dodgy is going on here as Lakoffian and Joe Brewer said.”
“The Hanlon bodied Ambulances became death traps in dodgy snow/rain/cold snaps.”
Chocolate Fireguards (Cars and Email) « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“Olive robert Pattison just looks plain dodgy, what a pity!”
“This worries me because, whilst I quite understand the need to replace windows from time to time, it looks suspiciously like something dodgy is going on here.”
“The suitors trying to court Katherina's sister Bianca are moderately funny, and the Katherina/Petruchio relationship, though generally very dodgy, is almost sweet in the penultimate scene.”
“The LA Weekly's Ella Taylor might disagree: [W] e live in dodgy critical times when aesthetic sophistication trumps moral and political discrimination.”
“The word dodgy doesnt do any of this activity the remotest justice.”
“But while critics wring their hands about dodgy rumors spreading via social networking sites-which are usually identified as dodgy rumors by those pass them on-few people have engaged in meaningful debate about those relaying information originally "reported" by the dictatorship's media outfits.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dodgy’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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UK - slang
fanny, nick, mufti, siphon, mug, smashing, butcher, stick up, knocker, porridge, tit, punter and 208 more...
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plai...
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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Band or Brand?
Band names that are also common words or phrases.
genesis, who, beatles, journey, germs, sublime, doors, cars, nirvana, bangles, tool, pixies and 192 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 more...
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"Queen's" English
Collection of words from Old Blighty
sorted, sketchy, mate, oi, innit, ol' chum, brilliant, wicked, arse, bloody, bollocks, wanker and 12 more...
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mots justes
No true synonyms, no other word will do.
dysphemism, nyehre, conflate, onomatopœic, galumph, zeitgeist, mercenary, theomeny, git, snarky, sass, smarmy and 46 more...
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Favorite Words
symbologist, articulate, sushi, chinchilla, flagrant, cosmic, perforate, alacrity, gooseflesh, xenophobic, bamboozle, squirrel and 90 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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words I love to use
kerfuffle, smarmy, sketchy, grim, wheedle, piffle, prattle, loggerheads, snarky, piddling, nix, caterwaul and 90 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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simple & useful9
heartrendingly, rancorous, ferocity, earful, dispiriting, dandification, ascribing, monotonic, smattering, yesteryear, sword of damocles, blubbering and 104 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dodgy.
thesaraheffect Artfully so. Sep 18, 2009
gangerh Norman Vaughan Feb 15, 2008