Dictionary

shonky en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From 1970s; possibly from dialectal English shonk (“smart”).

Meanings

1. (Australia, New-Zealand, UK, informal) Of poor or dubious quality, shoddy, unreliable; deviously dishonest, fraudulent.
   • That′s why it is infuriating that there are still so many sharks out there who are determined to rip men off with shonky treatments that simply don′t work. 2009, Bettina Arndt, The Sex Diaries, page 242:
   • 1986, Sociological Association of Australia and New Zealand, ANZJS: The Australian & New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Volume 22, page 475, The argument gets even shonkier when they claim that the boundary between clerical and administrative work is difficult to define anyway, and that routinisation and fragmentation have affected lower and middle management too (pp. 95–6).
   • He might be a dole-bludger, a gambler and have the shonkiest tattoo in the world on his arm, but he'll agree to almost anything. 2002, Markus Zusak, The Messenger, page 158:
   • The committee heard much evidence that this is a farce, yet this government have continued to try to pretend that their forecast, based on the shonkiest of assumptions—their model, with the shonkiest of assumptions—is really what is going to happen. 2000, Australian Senate, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), page 13548:
   • From no-brow beginnings, when BSG [Battlestar Galactica] still had to prove it had outwitted the shonky source material, the show gained cult respect and a few more viewers by the second year. 2008 April 15, Daniel Martin, “How will Battlestar Galactica end?”, in The Guardian:
   • Marred by shonky direction and factual errors, the film did nothing to enhance Kathner′s already poor reputation. 2010, Stephen Gaunson, “The Glenrowan Affair”, in Ben Goldsmith, Geoff Lealand, editors, Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand, page 98:

Forms

Deriveds

shonkily · shonkiness

shonky en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From 1970s; possibly from dialectal English shonk (“smart”).

Meanings

1. (Australia, informal) A dishonest person.
   • It is clear from Mr Boyd's evidence that the Union is hoping as a result of its application to obtain an award provision which would control the practices of the "crooks and shonkies in the industry". 1993, Australian Conciliation, Arbitration Commission, Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Commonwealth Arbitration Reports, volume 3, page 577:
   • Mr BILLSON—and they are being called shonkies and all sorts of things by the Labor Party[…]. 2003, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), volume 257, House of Representatives, page 19422:
   • I could hear the tenants talking above me and they were laughing about how they had ripped of the public transport system. I made up my mind that as they were obvious shonkies, I wouldn't give any leeway and, if they didn't pay on the spot, I would disconnect supply. 2010, Barry McMillan, Chinaman's Lagoon, page 323:

Forms