dodgy
/ˈdɒdʒi
/adjective (dodgier, dodgiest) British informal
1Dishonest or unreliable: a dodgy second-hand car salesman...
- It is here that she meets her second husband or partner, a dodgy, unreliable character.
- Cowboy traders and dodgy doorstep salesmen are prowling around, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting or the plain gullible.
- Then there's my dodgy car that may not make it there or back to visit anyone…
1.1Potentially dangerous: activities like these could be dodgy for your heart...
- A nifty footballer and a dab hand at catch and chase, Matthew admitted he thought he was going to lose her after she had an operation for a dodgy heart.
- Nothing fazes him, least of all his dodgy heart, which he considers merely a blip on a perfect landscape.
- Women who currently work the streets are putting themselves in danger not from the punters although some are dodgy but the pimps who extort these women.
1.2Of low quality: Spurs' dodgy defence had thrown away a 2-0 lead...
- He also evened out dodgy quality by blending wines grown in differing microclimates within Champagne and across both hot and cold vintages.
- It's all great stuff, despite the dodgy quality of the audio and video.
- In an effort to transcend the dodgy sound quality and high prices of bootlegs, the band has recorded every concert over the past three years.
Synonyms
second-rate, third-rate, substandard, low-grade, low-quality, cheap;
of low quality, of poor quality, not up to scratch, not up to par;
awful, terrible, dreadful, woeful, dire, deplorable, unacceptable, unsatisfactory;
British cheap and nasty;
North American cheapjack
informal cheapo, tenth-rate, not up to much
British informal ropy, grotty, duff
Derivatives
dodgily
- When the cages came off the lorry I did think one of them was a bit wobbly and dodgily stacked.
- Not only was the geography of Egypt all rather dodgily presented, but they couldn't even get the basic geography of London right in the bus chase seen.
- Do I fill out its dodgily leading questions, thus encouraging more politicians to believe what I believe?
dodginess
- If you are being suspected of a little dodginess yourself, you don't want to spend your time consorting with a person of such a spectacularly dubious reputation.
- Practically all of them are mixed up in some kind of criminal dodginess anyway, so it's hardly eroding their morals.
- Speaking of dodginess, I remember there was a guy at school who had a CD burner, and he charged something like $10 per CD to copy them for you.