A ‣ Form and meaning

A compound adjective has two parts. It is usually written with a hyphen, e.g. well-dressed, never-ending, sky-blue. Its meaning is usually clear from the combined words. The second part of the adjective is often a present participle (ending in -ing) or past participle (ending in -ed, except for irregular verbs).

B ‣ Personal appearance

A number of compound adjectives describe personal appearance. Here is a rather far-fetched description of a person starting from the head down. [hard to believe]

Tom was a curly-haired, suntanned, blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, thin-lipped, broad-shouldered, left-handed, long-legged young man, wearing an open-necked shirt, brand-new, tight-fitting jeans and open-toed sandals.

C ‣ Personality and character

Other compound adjectives describe a person's character.

Melissa was absent-minded [forgetful], easy-going [relaxed], good-tempered [cheerful], warm-hearted [kind] and quick-witted [quick-thinking/sharp], if perhaps a little big-headed [proud of herself], two-faced [not sincere], self-centred [always thinking about herself instead of others] and stuck-up [thinks she's better than other people (colloquial)] at times.

D ‣ Prepositions and particles

Another special group of compound adjectives has a preposition or particle in its second part.

The workers’ declaration of an all-out strike forced management to improve conditions. [total]

Once there were fields here but now it's a totally built-up area.

That student’s parents are very well-off [rich] but they don't give him much money and he is always complaining of being hard-up. [poor]

I love these shoes and, although they're worn-out, I can't throw them away.

This area was once prosperous but it now looks very run-down. [in a very bad condition]

E ‣ Collocations

Here are some other compound adjectives with typical noun collocations.

F ‣ Changing compound adjectives

You can vary the compound adjectives listed by changing one part of the adjective.

For example, curly-haired, long-haired, red-haired and wavy-haired; first-hand (knowledge), first-class (ticket) and first-born (child).