streaky

From streak + -y.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹiːki/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːki

streaky (comparative streakier, superlative streakiest)

1. Having streaks.
2. (cricket) Used to describe a shot where the ball deflects off the edge of the bat, but is not caught by the slips or wicket-keeper and instead results in runs for the batsman.
   • 2001, Luke Alfred, Lifting the Covers: Inside South African Cricket‎^[1]:

     Although the two added thirteen important runs, including four byes let through by Mongia and a streaky outside edge cum late-cut by Pollock for four, one didn't need to be blessed with gifts of insight to realise that Pollock's days at the crease were numbered.

   • 2005, Michael Slater, Slats: The Michael Slater Story:

     ...rather than hitting it with the middle of the bat, I jagged it off the inside edge and French-cut it over the top of the stumps for another four. That was the only streaky shot I can remember.

   • 2011, Roland Perry, Bradman's Invincibles: The Inside Story of the Epic 1948 Ashes Tour‎^[2]:

     Compton troubled Bradman with his Chinaman, and one streaky shot was edged past Crapp at slips.

3. Unpredictable, variable; having periods of good and bad (e.g. weather).
   • 1870, Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 17, page 34:

     […] to do his duty in the face of uncommonly streaky weather like a man.

   • 1901, National Stockman and Farmer, volume 25, page 16:

     [Nebraska] has a reputation for streaky weather, long stretches of drouth and long seasons of rain.

   • (Can we date this quote?), George Bartram, The White-headed Boy, page 204:

     It was one of those streaky days you often find at the end of a Kerry winter, with little spurts of cold rain and puffs of chilling wind and now and then glimpses of weak sunshine.

4. (chiefly of a person, usually Canada, US, in particular) Having alternating periods of good and bad performances; inconsistent.

   Jones has always been a streaky hitter

5. (archaic, slang) Having periods of irritation or bad temper.
6. (soccer) Not well-executed, due to luck more than skill.
   • 2015 April 18, Paul Wilson, The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Two goals from Alexis Sánchez, the second a little streakier than the first, were enough to send Arsenal into a second successive FA Cup final, once again following extra time after being held over 90 minutes by a Championship side.

• streakily
• streakiness
• streaky bacon

• John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

• Starkey, keytars