How to Use herky-jerky in a Sentence

herky-jerky

adjective
  • His quickness and herky-jerky rhythm define his game.
    — Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Porter is the flashier option—herky-jerky handle, can get his own shot, and takes some of the scoring load off Antetokounmpo.
    — Brian Sampson, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Primo left the seams showing on his best beats, deftly combining chunky sample chops and simple, swinging, heavy-bag drums into herky-jerky, screw-face symphonies.
    — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 8 Jan. 2026
  • If the segues in Scene don’t feel haphazard and herky-jerky, this is in no small part because of the role addiction plays as connective tissue between sections, a kind of leitmotif.
    — Nick Pinkerton, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Hamstring injuries are notoriously tricky, particularly for players such as Dončić, whose games rely on herky-jerky changes of speed and direction.
    — Law Murray, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2026
  • The way that life unfolds in herky-jerky, unpredictable rhythms informs the experimental approach that Dijon, a 33-year-old producer-singer, takes to R&B.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 12 Dec. 2025
  • The single thread throughout this herky-jerky tale is, oddly enough, the novels of Charles Dickens, taught by James’ grandfather, absorbed by James and quoted endlessly by Irving.
    — The Know, Denver Post, 15 Mar. 2026
  • The Bone Temple is in many ways a more conventional film than 28 Years Later; DaCosta thankfully doesn’t try to re-create the herky-jerky rhythms and mixed-media montages of Boyle’s picture.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2026
  • The lineup of dishes and sauces and combos verges on overwhelming; they’re presented in a mix of typefaces and colors, and punctuated by herky-jerky photo animations—a waving hand holding a soft-serve twist, spidery fingers with brass nail extensions used in the traditional Thai dance Fawn Leb.
    — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2025
  • In a throwback to the warts-and-all silliness of the family’s legendary MTV reality show, The Osbournes, Coming Home appears to lean into the domestic comedy of the Osbourne clan, opening with a jittery Ozzy begging Sharon to stop driving in a herky-jerky manner.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 1 Oct. 2025

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