Pretty

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pretty \Pret"ty\, a. [Compar. {Prettier}; superl. {Prettiest}.]
     [OE. prati, AS. pr[ae]ttig, pr[ae]tig, crafty, sly, akin to
     pr[ae]t, pr[ae]tt, 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}.]


     1. 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.
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              This is the prettiest lowborn lass that ever
              Ran on the greensward.                --Shak.
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     2. Moderately large; considerable; as, he had saved a pretty
        fortune. "Wavering a pretty while." --Evelyn.
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     3. Affectedly nice; foppish; -- used in an ill sense.
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              The pretty gentleman is the most complaisant in the
              world.                                --Spectator.
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     4. Mean; despicable; contemptible; -- used ironically; as, a
        pretty trick; a pretty fellow.
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     5. Stout; strong and brave; intrepid; valiant. [Scot.]
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              [He] observed they were pretty men, meaning not
              handsome.                             --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
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     Syn: Elegant; neat; fine. See {Handsome}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pretty \Pret"ty\, adv.
     In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; --
     less emphatic than very; as, I am pretty sure of the fact;
     pretty cold weather.
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           Pretty plainly professes himself a sincere Christian.
                                                    --Atterbury.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pretty
       adj 1: pleasing by delicacy or grace; not imposing; "pretty girl";
              "pretty song"; "pretty room"
       2: (used ironically) unexpectedly bad; "a pretty mess"; "a
          pretty kettle of fish"
       adv : used as an intensifier (`jolly' is used informally in
             Britain); "pretty big"; "pretty bad"; "jolly decent of
             him" [syn: {jolly}]
       [also: {prettied}, {prettiest}, {prettier}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  99 Moby Thesaurus words for "pretty":
     a bit, a little, acceptably, adequately, adroit, aesthetic,
     aesthetically appealing, almighty, appealing, attractive, awfully,
     beauteous, beautiful, bonny, catchy, charming, clever, comely,
     cunning, cute, darling, decently, die, ducky, dulcet, elegant,
     endowed with beauty, euphonious, exceedingly, exquisite, extremely,
     eye-filling, fair, fairishly, fairly, fairly well, fetching, fine,
     flowerlike, good, good-looking, graceful, gracile, handsome,
     harmonious, heavy, in a measure, in a way, in some measure,
     incredibly, just, kind of, lovely, lyrical, mellifluous, melodic,
     melodious, mightily, mighty, moderately, more or less, musical,
     only too, passably, plaything, powerful, powerfully, presentably,
     pretty much, pretty well, pulchritudinous, quite, rather, real,
     really, reasonably, respectably, right, satisfactorily, scarcely,
     slightly, so, some, something, somewhat, sort of, terribly,
     terrifically, to a degree, to some extent, tolerably, toy, tuneful,
     unexceptionably, very, well enough, wicked, winsome, workmanlike