rickety

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Weak and likely to break or collapse; poorly built or worn out.

   He hesitated before climbing the small, rickety ladder.

2. 2
   adj

   Weak and unsteady in the body, as from age or illness.

   The rickety old man barely managed the stairs.

From dialectal ricket (“unstable, rickety”) + -y, and/or ricket (“to move noisily and in a reckless way”) + -y. Alternatively, and perhaps less likely, from rickets + -y.

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