Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, slang Unnecessary or pretentious noodling (messing around).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

wank +‎ -ery

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Examples

  • I figure the best way to realize the absurdity of wankery is to take part in it, and now that I’ve taken part in it, I can see how absurd it is and will continue to be.

    So… 2004

  • I figure the best way to realize the absurdity of wankery is to take part in it, and now that I’ve taken part in it, I can see how absurd it is and will continue to be.

    But… 2004

  • I had to look up the word 'wankery' because it sounded as though it might be rude and that would be so unlike you.

    Where is Nick Clogg?: He Has 2008

  • Regrettably, the otherwise terrific banjo-rocker "Anywhere" and another track or two are marred by guitar wankery and bombast on the bridges.

    Album review: Sara Evans, "Stronger" 2011

  • Regrettably, the otherwise terrific banjo-rocker "Anywhere" and another track or two are marred by guitar wankery and bombast on the bridges.

    Album review: Sara Evans's 'Stronger' 2011

  • Enough with all this self-aggrandizement wankery bullshit.

    Get Laid or Die Trying Jeff Allen 2011

  • I think it's a wankery term invented by literati types who are too embarrassed to admit they're reading and/or writing fantasy.

    Of work and epihpanies karenmiller 2009

  • If women are targets or "pie" or "gullet" -- this writer is a wad of wankery, tacky ejaculate, unwittingly revealing what makes him screech and wee wee.

    Carol Muske-Dukes: The Rules According to a Fraternity "Cocksman" Carol Muske-Dukes 2011

  • Pretensions to classical education turn wonkery into wankery.

    Matthew Yglesias » By Request: An Egyptian Gaza? 2009

  • And of course, the reality is that even granting your Luntzian/Gingrichian wankery, even focusing obsessively on the worst (genuine) abuses of the past combined with modern fantasies peopled with ‘Sopranos’ actors or whatever, unionization is giving “people the chance to opt out of the working class altogether”; indeed, it was one of the major factors in creating widespread postWWII prosperity and a burgeoning middle class.

    Matthew Yglesias » McConnell’s Middle Class 2009

Comments

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  • Noun. i. Over-elaboration in an artistic or technical endeavour. ii. The act of being a wanker.

    E.g. (i) "God that was awful. Three hours in the car with Richard playing Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai on the stereo. I can't stand all that wankery."

    "John, there's an interesting proposal here trying to get out from behind a great deal of wankery."

    November 30, 2007