shipwrecky

English

WOTD – 29 July 2012

From shipwreck +‎ -y.

shipwrecky (comparative more shipwrecky, superlative most shipwrecky)

Characteristic of a shipwreck.
- 1896, Elizabeth Westyn Timlow, “Chapter VI”, in Cricket at the Seashore‎^[1], Estes and Lauriat:
  "I was only joking. We've escaped from a burning vessel, you know, and every one else is either burned or drowned. We've provisions for a month, if we don't eat too much, and we're in the South Sea Islands. South Sea Islands sound nice and shipwrecky, don't you think so?"
(figurative) Weak, feeble; shaky.
- 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:
  But down below he is not so good by any means — no spring from the loins, and feeblish, not to say shipwrecky, about the knees.
- 2007, Riaan Manser, Around Africa on My Bicycle, Jonathan Ball Publishers, →ISBN, page 301:
  So there I was, standing by the roadside in pitch darkness with my belongings and shipwrecky knees.

characteristic of shipwreck

weak, feeble, shaky