Tacky means tasteless, flashy, cheap-looking: glitter on every surface feels tacky. It's always disapproval, and even an expensive thing can be tacky. The second, everyday meaning is slightly sticky, not yet dry: the varnish is still tacky.
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tacky decorations / design; tacky paint; feel / look tacky
- The enormous plastic crown made the display look tacky.
- The varnish is still tacky, so do not put the books back yet.
- I like bright colours, but the glitter on every surface feels tacky.
What changed
First versionThese shoes were tacky — only ten pounds, a great deal!
RevisionThese shoes were cheap — only ten pounds, a great deal!
The word often appears next to cheap, so it's easy to take it as low-priced. But tacky is about taste, not price. A great pair of shoes for ten pounds is cheap, and that's praise.
Cheap means low-priced, sometimes low quality. Tacky means tasteless, even if expensive. Cheesy means corny or over-sentimental: cheesy music, cheesy jokes.
Your turn
Do not touch the tacky paint. Here tacky means ___.
Show the answer
slightly sticky — A warning not to touch the paint points to stickiness: slightly sticky. Stylish is praise for style, and there's none here.
Describe a decoration or sign that looks tasteless, and the detail that makes it so.
The sign looked tacky because every letter flashed in a different colour.
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