Rocky
adj, name, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Abounding in, or full of, rocks; consisting of rocks.
"a rocky mountain a rocky shore"
- 2 Easily rocked; unstable.
"The table was rocky, so we put a book under one leg."
- 3 In the style of rock music.
"His new album is quite rocky."
- 4 Like a rock; rigid, solid.
"Marsh went on as his prisoner drank. "Because you're caught in the middle of my alternate plan, Ram-Jam, which ram-jams your ass between the rockiest rock and the hardest hard place you ever imagined."
- 5 Encountering many problems; difficult, troubled; also, in danger or distress. figuratively
"Their relationship had weathered some rocky times, but they loved each other."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 Having a habitat around or on rocks.
- 7 Of a person: ill, or unsteady (for example, as a result of a shock). figuratively
- 8 Not easily affected or impressed; stony; hard; obdurate; unfeeling. archaic, figuratively
"to have a rocky heart"
- 1 full of hardship or trials wordnet
- 2 abounding in rocks or stones wordnet
- 3 causing or characterized by jolts and irregular movements wordnet
- 4 liable to rock wordnet
- 1 A diminutive of the male given names Robert, Ricky, Rocco, Roch, or Rock. countable, uncountable
"‘I didn′t know your son′s name was Rocky,’ I quietly said as we started walking again. ‘It's really Richard. When he was a kid we called him Ricky, which somehow turned into Rocky. Some people call him Rocco. He gets called a lot of things.’"
- 2 Diminutive of Rock (“surname”). countable, diminutive, form-of, uncountable
- 3 Rocky Balboa, a fictional boxer in a series of films. countable, uncountable
- 4 The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a motion picture. countable, informal, uncountable
- 5 A placename; Diminutive of Rockhampton; the regional city of Rockhampton; a city in Queensland, Australia. Australia, countable, diminutive, form-of, informal, uncountable
"Rocky is the major city on the central Queensland coast and likes to call itself the beef capital of Australia."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A placename; A town in Oklahoma, United States. countable, uncountable
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Red Mulligan has announced that he'll fight Rocky Luciano next month."
Etymology
From Middle English rokki, rokky (“rocky”), from rok, rokke (“rock; a rock or stone; large rock by a coast or in the sea; rocky outcrop on a mountain, cliff; castle, citadel, stronghold”) [and other forms] + -i (suffix forming adjectives). Rok, rokke are derived from: * Old English *rocc (“rock”); and * Anglo-Norman roc, roce, roque, and Old French roce, roke, roque, variants of roche (“rock”); both from Medieval Latin roca, rocca; further etymology uncertain, possibly of Celtic origin. The English word is analysable as rock + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).
From rock (“to move back and forth”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’). Rock is derived from Middle English rokken (“to move (something, such as a cradle) back and forth; to move or sway back and forth in an unstable manner; to go”) […], from Old English roccian (“to rock”), from Proto-Germanic *rukkōną (“to move; to move back and forth, rock”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewk- (“to dig; to till (soil)”).
From rock (“rock and roll music”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).
Diminutives with -y.
Related phrases
More for "rocky"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.