janky

adjective

ˈjaŋ-kē 

jankier; jankiest

informal

: of very poor quality : junky

… most of the vehicles on Bismuth were janky unregistered pick-ups that reeked of fish water.

—Corwin Ericson

also : not functioning properly or adequately : faulty

Hahn was incredibly down-to-earth in her normal-looking home with her somewhat janky Wi-Fi.

—Chris Murphy

"My family had medical debt, because we live in the jankiest medical system in the developed world."

—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Examples of janky in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These little pain points—where the interface is janky because Windows doesn’t allow companies to change the behavior—are everywhere on gaming handhelds. —Eric Ravenscraft, WIRED, 31 Aug. 2024

The next pass was better, but the stitches were still janky. —Heshel Rolnick, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2024

This is regrettable because Venom only really looks good that way, though the effects are in general a little less janky in this installment than the previous two. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2024

Bottom line, America’s grid is janky and outdated, Clements said. —Ella Nilsen, CNN, 18 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

of uncertain origin

Note: Early records of the word indicate an origin in African-American speech. Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, hypothesizes that it represents "a regional, affected, or colloquial pronunciation of junky entry 1." According to Clarence Major, in Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang (New York, 1994), it is "probably a variant of jinxed" (see jinx entry 2).

First Known Use

1989, in the meaning defined above