"creaking, apt to creak," 1834, from creak + -y (2). Related: Creakily; creakiness.
Entries linking to creaky
creak v.
early 14c., creken, "utter a harsh cry," of imitative origin. Compare Old English cræccettan "to croak." Used from 1580s of the sound made by rusty gate hinges, wooden floorboards, and aged bones. Related: Creaked; creaking. As a noun, from c. 1600, "a sharp, harsh, grating sound."
-y 2
adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.