Pretty
adj, adv, name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A pretty person; a term of address to a pretty person.
"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!"
- 2 Something that is pretty.
"We'll stop at the knife store and look at the sharp pretties."
- 1 To make pretty; to beautify
"He sat on the hearth rug and began prettying the dog's coat."
- 1 Pleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.
"Having brought it to a close, he took his way to the Kursaal. The great German watering-place is one of the prettiest nooks in Europe, and of a summer evening in the gaming days, five-and-twenty years ago, it was one of the most brilliant scenes."
- 2 Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
"Some fans may have mistaken the album’s floatiness for aimlessness, but Mr. Mercer’s songs have never been sneakier, or prettier."
- 3 Fine-looking; only superficially attractive; initially appealing but having little substance; see petty. derogatory, often
"Damned by the Socialists as "traitors to the working class," its leaders were decried by Tories as "faceless peddlers of politics with a pretty little trinket for every taste.""
- 4 Effeminate. UK, derogatory, sometimes
- 5 Cunning; clever, skilful.
"In the end, however, it was a very pretty shot, right across the chasm; killed first fire, and the brute fell headlong into the brook […]."
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- 6 Moderately large; considerable. dated
"they flung all the goods in the house out at the windows into the street, or into the sea, as they supposed; thus they continued mad a pretty season […]."
- 7 Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.). dated
"Some people are surprised, I believe, that that the eldest was not [named after his father], but Isabella would have him named Henry, which I thought very pretty of her."
- 8 Awkward, unpleasant, bad. ironic
""Nay, not I; it is a pretty thing to expect me to wash them; you may take them back again, and say, as Sally had them before, she may wash them now, for me; I am not going to be 'Jack at a pinch,' I can tell you.""
- 9 Matching commonly accepted principles of formatting and syntax, for the sake of readability.
- 1 pleasing by delicacy or grace; not imposing wordnet
- 2 (used ironically) unexpectedly bad wordnet
- 1 Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very. not-comparable
"They are proud, and vveare their hayre pretty long, and about their criſpes vvreath a valuable Shaſh or Tulipant; […]"
- 2 Prettily, in a pretty manner. dialectal, not-comparable
"'The boy sings pretty, don't he, Master Marner?'"
- 1 to certain extent or degree wordnet
- 1 A surname.
- 2 Alternative form of Preeti; A female given name from Sanskrit. alt-of, alternative
Example
More examples""This looks pretty interesting," Hiroshi says."
Etymology
From Middle English prety, preti, praty, prati, from Old English prættiġ (“tricky, crafty, sly, cunning, wily, astute”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattug, from Proto-Germanic *prattugaz (“boastful, sly, slick, deceitful, tricky, cunning”), corresponding to prat (“trick”) + -y. Doublet of pratty. Cognate with Dutch prettig (“nice, pleasant”), Low German prettig (“funny”), Icelandic prettugur (“deceitful, tricky”). For the semantic development, compare canny, clever, cute.
From Sanskrit प्रीति (prīti).