sketchy

sketchy

Of dubious safety or legal integrity. He's assuring me that the scheme is totally legitimate, but it sounds pretty sketchy to me. He jerry-rigged some sketchy makeshift scaffolding so we could finish the painting on the outside wall, and I spent the whole time worried it would come toppling down around us.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sketchy

mod. unsafe; illegal; risky. (Alluding to danger due to lack of knowledge.) Why are we going down in the sketchy place on this silly errand?
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • sheisty
  • shysty
  • hard to believe
  • on the reezie
  • off the back of a lorry
  • go to extremes
  • fall off the back of a lorry
  • dodgy deal
  • fall off a truck
  • fall off the back of a truck
References in periodicals archive
Huddersfield Thespians in rehearsals for Sketchy At Best are, from left, Melanie Walton, Kyle Gallagher, Richard Watson, Dominic Vinton, Thomas Bull and Rachel Owens.
This 15th 16 reached last mannered Form guide of first week is always sketchy, but Fed looks in the big four
Recently, the students began building animations that they will enter in a Sketchy contest.
Featuring a handful of sketchy illustrations in black-and-white, Young British Slacker is an unusual novel written in second person--always addressing the reader, i.e.
A spokesman said that the incident was still being investigated and police only had sketchy details until the man was well enough to be interviewed.
Wes Bissett, senior vice president of government affairs and state relations for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, said information about the existing pilot program has been sketchy at best.
The information might be sketchy and based solely on recollection--i.e., estimations of the number of engineers who worked at that time and their salaries, and partially recalled qualified research activities and the time spent on them.
A sketchy film made with a light touch by Wilhelm Sasnal--one of three he collectively titled Love Songs, 2005--had viewers humming along to the old jazz standard, "Blue Moon." As the lyrics were sung on the sound track, the words depicted on a sheet of paper were crossed out.
It's all very well spending 10 million pounds on a winger but if we don't sign someone to put the ball in the back of the net then this could be a very, very sketchy period for NUFC.
In a statement, the president said: "The United States has joined with Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea to create a new Asia-Pacific partnership on clean development, energy security, and climate change." Details about the new partnership are sketchy, but according to a White House fact sheet, the parties to the agreement pledge on a voluntary basis to develop and use technologies that increase energy security while decreasing emissions of so-called greenhouse gases.
Although sketchy, this section outlines the strong commitment to education and the Baptist faith that marked Taylor's birth family.
Readers may contrast the extremely detailed story of George Pullman, who thought to hire dark skinned, recently freed Southern men to serve his clients, against the sketchy details of the first unknown porter-everyman, and marvel at the anonymity that makes him so salient a black icon
The sketchy artwork and its splashes of color help spell out the convoluted tale, which at fifty-five pages is lengthy by picturebook standards and of almost intermediate reading level, perfect for young people about ready to make the transition from picture books to more complex stories.
Queen's Park says it plans to create a new research fund this fall, but details remain sketchy.
Details are still sketchy about the exact functioning of the new company.