pretty
/ˈpɹɪt.i/ adjective, adverb, noun, verb, proper noun
Forms prettier prettiest pretties prettying prettied Prettys pooty purdy purty pratty prettie pretie
- adjective Pleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.
- adjective Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
- adjective (often derogatory) Fine-looking; only superficially attractive; initially appealing but having little substance; see petty.
- adjective (UK, sometimes derogatory) Effeminate.
- adjective Cunning; clever, skilful.
- adjective (dated) Moderately large; considerable.
- adjective (dated) Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).
- adjective (ironic) Awkward, unpleasant, bad.
- adverb Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.
- adverb (dialect) Prettily, in a pretty manner.
- noun A pretty person; a term of address to a pretty person.
- noun Something that is pretty. “We'll stop at the knife store and look at the sharp pretties.”
- verb To make pretty; to beautify
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
dainty reasonably moderately jolly somewhat fairly middling passably
Antonyms
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).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Pleasing by delicacy or grace; attracting, but not striking or impressing; of a pleasing and attractive form a color; having slight or diminutive beauty; neat or elegant without elevation or grandeur; pleasingly, but not grandly, conceived or expressed; as, a pretty face; a pretty flower; a pretty poem.
- adjective Moderately large; considerable; as, he had saved a pretty fortune.
- adverb In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; --less emphatic than very; as, I am pretty sure of the fact; pretty cold weather.
Etymology [OE. prati, AS. prættig, prætig, crafty, sly, akin to præt, prætt, deceit, trickery, Icel. prettugr tricky, prettr a trick; probably fr. Latin, perhaps through Celtic; cf. W. praith act, deed, practice, LL. practica execution, practice, plot. See Practice.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pretty”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details