tacky

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

adjective (of a glutinous liquid such as paint) not completely dried and slightly sticky to the touch
adjective tastelessly showy

From tack + -y.

Then she turned to her girl-assistant, who was once more laying the tacky strips of linen along the seams. — The Boy with Wings, Berta Ruck
Cooper hurled his canisters of penetrating gas, Adlington his atomic iron explosive bombs, Spencer his indestructible armor-piercing projectiles, and Dutton his shatterable flasks of the quintessence of corrosion--a sticky, tacky liquid of such dire potency that only one rare Solarian element could contain it. — Triplanetary, E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith
He introduced ping-pong; he gave us our first "pit party"; he held the first barn dance given in the county; his was our first "tacky party"; and he gave the first progressive buggy ride the young people had ever enjoyed, and seven girls afterward confessed that on the evening of that affair he hadn't been in the buggy with them five minutes before he began driving with one hand--and his right hand at that. — In Our Town, William Allen White

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