Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Lacking consistency, as in quality; uneven.
- adjective Having or marked with spots; spotted.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Full of spots; marked with spots; spotted.
- Occurring in spots or irregularly: as, hops are said to run spotty when the crops are unequal.
- Patchy; lacking harmony of parts; without unity.
- noun A New Zealand fish, a wrasse, Pseudolabrus bothryocosmus. Also called
poddly and kelp-fish.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Full of spots; marked with spots.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having
spots ;spotted . - adjective Of
inconsistent quality - noun A
slang name for a common New Zealand fish
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having spots or patches (small areas of contrasting color or texture)
- adjective lacking consistency
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word spotty.
Examples
-
And there's been a lot of what we call a spotty going on.
-
Iowa State product started just 35 games in spotty six-season career; was named NBA Development
Reader ballots tab Bowie as biggest NBA draft bust ever 2008
-
That said, my access to such things will remain spotty for the next month or so as I make my way back to Philly.
the kernels get stuck in my teeth, but i like it (Music (For Robots)) 2005
-
And it became so insistent in talking about this that he became known as spotty Lincoln.
-
That said, my access to such things will remain spotty for the next month or so as I make my way back to Philly.
-
If the image is too minutely and accurately displayed, it be - comes what, in painting, we call spotty; that is, instead of con - centrating the attention to one general combination of parts, sub - ordinate to each other, it leaves it distracted and confused among many parts, equally glaring and prominent.
The progress of civil society : a didactic poem, in six books 1796
-
Mr. Beck has what can best be described as a spotty knowledge of many things on which he pronounces, but nowhere is that more evident then in his lame attempt to claim that social justice is an alien graft onto religion, rather than of its essence.
Texas Faith: Should government practice social justice? | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2010
-
This will inevitably change as my routine becomes more settled, but for now, communication shall remain spotty.
-
Her payments since her release from prison have been spotty, which is why you remanded her to prison for contempt.
An Open Letter to the Honorable Judge Alan M. Rubenstein 2006
-
That's a really important thing because, you know, the rainfall can be very scattered and very spotty, that is especially in our thunderstorm season.
NPR Topics: News 2011
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.