pretty

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Pleasant to the sight or other senses

   Pleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.

   • Hal Smith, manager of the Ferry Field theatre, Detroit, one of the largest and prettiest outskirt houses in town, played Metro's "Revelation" for three days last week
   • The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
2. 2

   Of objects or things

   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.
   • 'Petit Posy' brassicas […] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.
3. 3

   Fine-looking

   Fine-looking; only superficially attractive; initially appealing but having little substance; see petty.

   • 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. ›+ 13 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Effeminate.

   2. 5

      Cunning

      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 […].
   3. 6

      Moderately large

      Moderately large; considerable.

      • 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 […].
      • "What did you do to your hair?" The answer could be worth a pretty penny for L'Oreal.
   4. 7

      Excellent, commendable, pleasing

      Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).

      • 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.
   5. 8

      Awkward, unpleasant, bad.

      • "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."
      • [A] pretty thing it would be, if a man of business had to examine every cab-horse before he hired it—[…]
   6. 9

      Matching commonly accepted principles of formatting and syntax, for the sake of…

      Matching commonly accepted principles of formatting and syntax, for the sake of readability.

   7. 10

      Somewhat, fairly, quite

      Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.

      • They are proud, and vveare their hayre pretty long, and about their criſpes vvreath a valuable Shaſh or Tulipant; […]
      • By the Sheets you have sent me to peruse, the Account you have given of her Birth and Parentage is pretty exact [...].
      • Pauſanias's account is related pretty faithfully there, if we except two errors, one, that Arcas an Olympian mixed ſome Hippomanes with the brazen ſtatue, the other that he caſt a mare.
   8. 11

      Prettily, in a pretty manner.

      • 'The boy sings pretty, don't he, Master Marner?'
   9. 12

      A pretty person

      A pretty person; a term of address to a pretty person.

      • I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!
   10. 13

       Something that is pretty.

       • We'll stop at the knife store and look at the sharp pretties.
   11. 14

       To make pretty

       To make pretty; to beautify

       • He sat on the hearth rug and began prettying the dog's coat.
   12. 15

       A surname.

   13. 16

       Alternative form of Preeti

       Alternative form of Preeti; A female given name from Sanskrit.

The neighborhood

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