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The Varied Meanings of Sketchy
A sketch is a rough drawing usually done as an initial draft in contrast to a finished work. The word sketch suggests imperfection and a lack of refinement. It comes from the Dutch word schets and ultimately from the Italian verb schizzare, an imitative verb meaning "to splash."
Unsurprisingly, the adjective sketchy originally described something relating to or resembling a sketch, as in "a sketchy portrait." But because sketches are by nature rough and ill-defined, sketchy soon came to mean "wanting in completeness, clearness, or substance," as in "a sketchy understanding" or "sketchy details."
What lacks completeness, clearness, or substance is also subject to doubt or challenge, and sketchy went on to develop uses applying to what is questionable or iffy, either for physically obvious qualities or for something less tangible. In sports we see this sense of sketchy applied to a track or surface that is poorly maintained, as in "a sketchy track," and in broader use it is applied to streets and neighborhoods that can also be described as seedy, as in "a sketchy part of town."
The adjective has more recently extended in use to describe someone who creates an impression of unsavoriness, or something that comes from an untrustworthy source or is itself untrustworthy, as in "a sketchy dude" or "a scheme that sounds sketchy."
Examples of sketchy in a Sentence
Michael Schaub, Oc Register, 11 June 2026
The preliminary ruling came in a case flagged by The Decoder, where two publishers found that Google’s AI Overviews incorrectly linked them to scams and other sketchy business practices.
—Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 10 June 2026
Details of the incident remain sketchy, including whether the Apache ditched due to a mechanical failure or hostile action.
—David Szondy
june 09, New Atlas, 9 June 2026
Crowd estimates are often sketchy, but this party stands with some of the largest sports gatherings in history.
—Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 8 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for sketchy
Cite this Entry
“Sketchy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sketchy. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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