Crummy, cruddy, crappy, or otherwise not very good.
This made-up term, intended as a spoof of teenage slang of the day, was first used the the 1947 RKO motion picture, "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple. In the opening
scene, when a maid wakes teenager
Susan Turner, played by Temple, she protests being woken, saying "But, Bessie, I feel absolutely sklonklish." Moments later, when Bessie relates the conversation to
Susan'
s older sister, Judge Margaret Turner, played by Loy, the sister says, "Next
time she tells you she feels sklonklish, you tell her not to be a clunk."
The
cold autumn
rain had Jimmy feeling sklonklish, but once he got to
Susie's house the hot apple cider and pleasant company quickly cheered him up.
