1Not straight; crooked or askew.

1. 1.1 (of a thing) unsteady.
   they sat drinking, perched on the wonky stools

   Example sentencesExamples

   • If you took a map of Australia and drew a wonky circle around the middle of the country, you'd land in the outback: red dirt, sparely inhabited, the back country.
   • One pit latrine had a sort of toilet built on top, but it was very wonky.
   • If books play a bigger part in your life than as props for wonky tables, a means of murdering insects or a useful storage space for old receipts, then a literary evening at one of York's more versatile pubs could be right up your alley.
   • My wounds were dressed, the burn on my shoulder was dressed, and I was still a bit wonky as we say in the biz, but I was able to say that I had ‘forgotten’ my medicine, which was a lie.
   • It is dark, with low ceilings, crooked wooden floors, wonky bar stools and an array of nationalist paraphernalia on the walls.
   • He said: ‘One of the wheels is wonky, the handles are unstable and I was feeling quite worried about it.’
   • For those of you who don't know, ‘books’ are those hard, flat things made out of paper and cardboard most often used to stabilize wonky table legs.
   • I, for instance, always choose the one with the wonky wheel and the damp seat, which, as I'm sure my parents would be the first to point out, goes a long to explaining my choice of boyfriends down the years.
   • The railings are broken, the steps descending into Terrace Field are now so wonky that they are impassable to some less agile walkers and many of the trees that once crowned the hilltop have died or blown over.
   • The big snow finally did in the wonky bracket and the horizontal pipe is currently filled with brackish water and dead leaves, while the vertical one leans against the house.

   Synonyms

   wobbly, unsteady, unstable, shaky, rocky

   Irish bockety
2. 1.2 Not functioning correctly; faulty.
   I enjoy good health, apart from two wonky knees

   Example sentencesExamples

   • My guess is that the wonky balance sheets that we associate with corporate failures such as Enron and Worldcom were more widespread (although the illegalities may not have been).
   • The combination of sensuous, sophisticated mark-making and wonky imagery was, as always in Blackwell's work, irresistible.
   • With several cogs loose in a wonky line-out, it is all the more surprising that Hadden left Scott Lawson on the bench until the 65th minute and ignored the expertise that Ally Kellock has quickly accumulated altogether.
   • That means the streetcar line may not have gone this far (and I don't think it did, for reasons too wonky to get into here.)
   • And that falsehood - which Charles Windsor was pointing out in his own inimitable, wonky style - is the cruel fantasy the modern PC elite are using to hoodwink our young folk.
   • The E double might have stumbled on a pretty simple coupling of wonky bass and Mr. Gaye, and many of us were appalled at its simplicity, but no one cares now - that song is huge!
   • This may have excellent wonky credentials, or it may be one of those silly policy proposals that people only talk about because they can't think of anything that would work.
   • I try and check viewability of this site using other browsers from time to time (especially if changing something major) but otherwise I won't know if something looks wonky.
   • Upon encountering a woman with pointy bosoms, let's say in the corridor by the wonky coffee machine, it is generally considered bad form if you exclaim ‘Pointy bosoms!’
   • Today, it isn't a problem with the rabbit ears or a loose bit of coax: a bad picture means that the decompression of a digital video stream has gone all wonky.
   • It'll do wonders to motivate the mummers, bring out the wonky wordpeckers who inhabit every nook and cranny, not to mention extend a warm welcome to some very odd-ball strangers.
   • Sure, the band gives off all the necessary signs - token pop act on an avant label, lo-fi production, wonky keyboards - but that doesn't mean you should go for it.
   • Another Gawker link and I've had over 1,000 hits today, and right as we're about to possibly maybe finally get all wonky with redesign stuff.
   • It's all guesswork this week, though, because we don't know who is able to dance like an angel skipping across the clouds, and who can only lurch around like a wonky 1930s robot.
   • Plus, I bought a new laptop, for no reason other than the one I have been using is in the area of five years old, has a wonky screen, can't seem to play sound and have a USB device plugged in to it, and weighs a ton.
   • I firmly believe that the BMI dohickey is complete bunk for most people, and since I fully intend to continue working out, my BMI will always be wonky.
   • The result is an intimate, small-hours vibe that perfectly suits Poe's tales of relationships going wonky, relationships beyond repair and families that have put all that nonsense behind them and just soldier on.
   • John Logie Baird, television innovator, with lots of pictures of Baird and his wonky machines, including a diagram of the early TV studios at Crystal Palace.
   • It would be grossly unfair if the shortstop was awarded an error when it was the second bagger who dropped the ball, yet that is the kind of wonky logic that applies, in many cases, to the interception stat.
   • Now, unless there's a whole series of brain cells gone wonky in exactly the right place, I seem to remember some old thing about ‘one cuckoo does not a summer make’.
   • And God knows, starting back at that tender age where you think you'll never, ever be popular, you'll shut up and pretend to be anyone but your wonky self just to be accepted.
   • In those days, his stilted style, forced delivery, and wonky timing were virtues, reinforcing our sense of his hypothetically heartwarming kidness.
   • Heretofore my worst disaster was a 3.5 inch disk going wonky and eating a chapter of my dissertation (which sucked anyway) so my number was just up for a hard drive failure.
   • The wonky lights have been malfunctioning for so long, and so often, a rumour spread in the area that the equipment was, in fact, secondhand when it was installed.
   • In Waters's world, everything is a little wonky and off center.
   • Well, when you're plodding along with your stick and your wonky knees, walking further on hard pavements than you ought, you're entitled to direct some small spite at the drivers who've stolen your space, aren't you?
   • And despite the fact that atheists, agnostics and wonky Catholics die no comparable rituals to the Christian rituals of death and burial have emerged as an alternative.
   • Stars, however, are able to plug away with unlimited resources, the objective support of paid yes-men and, for reasons that are sometimes chemically related, a rather wonky perception of their own abilities.
   • Please send me an e-mail if you notice anything wonky.
   • I was a little wonky from the weekend, & am not generally the fittest cookie in the box, but it was still disconcerting to be trailing so far behind the ten-year-olds who were having their lessons.
   • ‘Help me,’ I gasped, grabbing at a woman with wonky eyes.
   • Having wonky analytical arguments may be good for policy (and I hope we will always do this) but politically it's disastrous.
   • He delivers his rather wonky interpretation of the Bible in the ‘Zacchaeus.’
   • All the hits are here, of course, from the goons of Brixton, with their left-handed garage groove, punky punch and bottomless grab-bag of weird, wonky noises.

   Synonyms

   malfunctioning, broken, damaged, defective, not working, not functioning, in disrepair, out of order, out of commission, inoperative, unsound, unusable, useless