rocky
UK /ˈɹɒki/ · US /ˈɹɑki/ adjective, proper noun
Forms rockier rockiest Rockys
- adjective Abounding in, or full of, rocks; consisting of rocks. “a rocky mountain a rocky shore”
- adjective Like a rock; rigid, solid.
- adjective (Of an animal or plant) Having a habitat around or on rocks.
- adjective (figuratively, archaic) Not easily affected or impressed; stony; hard; obdurate; unfeeling. “to have a rocky heart”
- adjective (slang) Having little or no money; stony broke.
- adjective Easily rocked; unstable. “The table was rocky, so we put a book under one leg.”
- adjective Encountering many problems; difficult, troubled; also, in danger or distress. “Their relationship had weathered some rocky times, but they loved each other.”
- adjective (originally US) Of a person: ill, or unsteady (for example, as a result of a shock).
- adjective In the style of rock music. “His new album is quite rocky.”
- proper noun A diminutive of the male given names Robert, Ricky, Rocco, Roch, and Rock.
- proper noun nickame for a boxer, after Rocky Balboa, a fictional boxer in a series of films.
- proper noun (informal) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a motion picture.
- proper noun A town in Oklahoma, United States.
Synonyms
flinty rocklike, rock-like stonelike tottering wobbly hard tough arduous challenging nasty difficult sticky effortful rough thistly uneath unsimple unsteady erratic fluid bouldery bouldered stony bumpy jolty jolting jumpy
Etymology
From Middle English rokki, rokky (“rocky”), from rok, rokke (“rock; a rock or stone; large rock by a coast or in the sea; rocky outcrop on a mountain, cliff; castle, citadel, stronghold”) [and other forms] + -i (suffix forming adjectives). Rok, rokke are derived from:
* Old English *rocc (“rock”); and
* Anglo-Norman roc, roce, roque, and Old French roce, roke, roque, variants of roche (“rock”);
both from Medieval Latin roca, rocca; further etymology uncertain, possibly of Celtic origin. The English word is analysable as rock + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).
From rock (“to move back and forth”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’). Rock is derived from Middle English rokken (“to move (something, such as a cradle) back and forth; to move or sway back and forth in an unstable manner; to go”) […], from Old English roccian (“to rock”), from Proto-Germanic *rukkōną (“to move; to move back and forth, rock”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewk- (“to dig; to till (soil)”).
From rock (“rock and roll music”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).
Diminutives with -y.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rocky”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details