dinky

[ding-kee] /ˈdɪŋ ki/

adjective, dinkier, dinkiest.

Informal. small, unimportant, unimpressive, or shabby:

We stayed in a dinky old hotel.

British Informal. fashionable; well dressed; smart.

noun, plural dinkies.

Origin

1780-90; compare Scots dink neatly dressed, trim (of obscure origin); sense shift perhaps: trim > dainty > small > insignificant; see -y¹

Examples from the web for dinky

dinky little velvet-covered buttons are not for you.
It may seem crazy, but it was running a dinky club that set me on the path to seeing myself as someone who could run a business.
But its dinky little shell is inside the big, slippery body, so a sea hare can't pull back into its shell for protection.
These are not your dinky, wrapped in plastic, grocery story caramel apples.

British Dictionary definitions for dinky

/ˈdɪŋkɪ/

adjective (informal) dinkier, dinkiest

(Brit) small and neat; dainty

(US) inconsequential; insignificant

Word Origin

C18 (in the sense: dainty): from dink

Word Origin and History for dinky

adj.

1788 "neat, trim, dainty, small," from Scottish dialectal dink "finely dressed, trim" (c.1500), of unknown origin. Modern sense is 1850s.

Slang definitions & phrases for dinky

adjective

Small; undersized The earliest sense meant ''small, neat, trim,'' and is related to later college use dink, ''a dude'': a dinky foreign car/ dinky little town
Inadequate; substandard: What a dinky joint! (1788+)