edgy
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: advertising
art
arts
business
entertainment
lifestyle
marketing
Etymology: From edge + -y. Compare German eckig (“angular, edgy”).
Base: edge
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: edgier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: edgiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Nervous, apprehensive.
pos: adj
gloss: Creatively challenging; cutting edge; leading edge.
pos: adj
gloss: On the edge between acceptable and offensive; pushing the boundaries of good taste; risqué.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: “A few college kids make edgy jokes in a group chat and conservatives are tripping over themselves to denounce and disavow and call for firings and resignations,” Matt Walsh, a right-wing commentator, posted on X.
gloss: Irritable.
pos: adj
tags: dated
examples: an edgy temper
gloss: Having some of the forms, such as drapery or the like, too sharply defined.
pos: adj
examples: A sculptor's ideas must, I should guess, be somewhat rigid and inflexible, like the materials in which he works. Besides, Nollekens's style was comparatively hard and edgy.
gloss: Sharp; having prominent edges.
pos: adj
examples: Shasta tried to get out of the way and to make Bree go back. But […] a woman with a very edgy basket in her hands, who was just behind Shasta, pushed the basket hard against his shoulders, and said, "Now then! Who are you shoving!"
gloss: Cool by virtue of being tough, dark, or badass.
pos: adj
tags: slang
examples: My bicep, my poor little cluster of nearly muscle is being pressed into a funsize turkey nugget and I’m starting to perhaps regret my outing with this bunch of Brentford fans who have that slightly edgier reputation.
His cool, somewhat edgy look is directed back at the photographer, as if she was too close, perhaps had seen too much.
This former aspiring rapper-turned author brings out the heartfelt emotion in his writing from an edgy street-life perspective that leaves the reader begging for more.
This is where the edgiest fashion happens (and where the major brands send their researchers and cool-hunters to sniff out the coming looks).
The full bar adds to the edgy attitude of the place, which stays open until midnight on weekends.
The country part came in with their piquant nativist themes, an edgy, don't-fuck-with-me pose and attitude, a gnawing male chauvinism undercut by sentimentality for women, kin, and the Lord.
From the author of Bleed Like Me, which Booklist called “edgy, dark, and turbulent with passion” comes another compelling and gritty novel about addiction and forbidden romance—starring a fearless, unforgettable heroine.
gloss: Exhibiting behavior that is disconcerting or alarming, sometimes in an effort to impress or to troll others.
pos: adj
tags: Internet
examples: These trolls think they’re being satirical and brave because they’re putting these dangerous, edgy so-called jokes on there, but in reality it’s cowardly. It’s the antithesis of bravery because they rarely identify themselves or give away personal information. That’s not courage.
A large portion of the Internet audience enjoys edgy content and the behavior of the more extreme users; it wants to see the bad with the good, so it becomes harder to get rid of the ugly. But to attract more mainstream audiences and bring in the big-budget advertisers, you must hide or remove the ugly.
At first, trolling was simply an apolitical form of amusement — web posting as performance art. The image board 4chan soon became its mecca.
Over time, however, the trolls began moving from joking about racism to advocating it in their desire to become ever more edgy. Andrew Anglin, creator of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer and a longtime troll before that, described the transformation process in a lengthy post on his blog:
“The sentiments behind the jokes slowly became serious, as people realized they were based on fact," he wrote. "Non-ironic Nazism [began] masquerading as ironic Nazism.”
Dank meme communities love making fun of fidget spinners, especially because spinners are associated with autistic kids, a favorite target for mockery in “edgy” online spaces like 4chan and Reddit. There, spinners are considered emblematic of everything that’s wrong with society, and they’re used as a metaphor for anything unlikeable.
Related words: don't cut yourself on that edge
edgelord
edgesphere
on edge
over the edge
Derived words: edgily
edginess
unedgy
Translations: