Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Pleasing or attractive in a graceful or delicate way. synonym: beautiful.
- adjective Clever; adroit.
- adjective Very bad; terrible.
- adjective Ostensibly or superficially attractive but lacking substance or conviction.
- adjective Informal Considerable in size or extent.
- adverb To a fair degree; moderately.
- adverb In a pretty manner; prettily or pleasingly.
- noun One that is pretty.
- noun Delicate clothing, especially lingerie.
- transitive verb To make pretty.
- idiom (pretty much) For the most part; mostly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Moderately; reasonably; tolerably: expressing a degree less than very: as, a farm pretty well stocked; pretty good lodgings; I am pretty sure of the fact.
- Crafty; cunning; clever; shrewd; keen.
- Strong and bold; warlike; accomplished in arms.
- Comely; handsome; good-looking; hence, in later use, pleasing to the esthetic sense; attractive through grace, elegance, neatness, harmony of parts, or delicacy of outline or coloring; having delicate beauty; pleasing the eye or ear rather than impressing the mind: as, a pretty face; a pretty cottage; a pretty picture.
- Hence Affectedly neat or fastidious about one's personal appearance; finical; foppish.
- Pleasing in general; pleasing to the mind; interesting; entertaining; gratifying.
- Excellent; good; fine; nice: said loosely, like
fine and nice, of almost any object or action as a general term of commendation, and also, likefine and nice, often used ironically, especially in exclamatory sentences. - Good or sufficient; moderately large in quantity, number, extent, duration, etc.; considerable.
- A term of endearment, supplying the place of a diminutive.
- Synonyms Handsome, Fair, etc. See
beautiful .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; -- less emphatic than
very - 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
- adjective Moderately large; considerable.
- adjective Affectedly nice; foppish; -- used in an ill sense.
- adjective Mean; despicable; contemptible; -- used ironically
- adjective Scot. Stout; strong and brave; intrepid; valiant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb
Somewhat ,fairly ,quite ; sometimes also (bymeiosis )very . - noun Something that is pretty.
- verb To make pretty; to
beautify
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb to a moderately sufficient extent or degree
- adjective pleasing by delicacy or grace; not imposing
- adjective (used ironically) unexpectedly bad
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Wow..so this is the first time that I found your site..pretty said considering I thought I was pretty smart!
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If you talk of bathing, they will advise you to _dook oonder_; and should a mother present her baby to you she will call it her _smook barn_, her pretty bairn or child, _smook_ being the Norse word for _pretty_.
Chasing the Sun 1859
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_Singing, Laughing all, Singing Laughing all, like pretty pretty_ Poll.
Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6 Thomas D'Urfey 1688
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T. e of the pretty O F E N G L A N D* 245 pretty dairy plats that belonged - to the abbot; we take with us Darelbury, a pretty* parifti - church, and by the fide of it a fair houfe and de - mefnc of a long continued dcfcent of the Daniels, and now Mr. Daniel's -, and Prefton, called Pref - ton on the Hill.
The History of Cheshire: Containing King's Vale-royal Entire 1778
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II. iii.28 (195,3) _With, every thing that pretty bin_] is very properly restored by Hanmer, for _pretty is_; but he too grammatically reads,
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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The title pretty much says it all but be prepared for a lot of twists and turns in the storyline; surprise elements that only a talented voice such as Cairo could come up with.
Deep Throat Diva Cairo 2011
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The title pretty much says it all but be prepared for a lot of twists and turns in the storyline; surprise elements that only a talented voice such as Cairo could come up with.
Deep Throat Diva Cairo 2011
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Like, his word pretty much determines the course of our lives.
Ballet's Gritty Inside Story Sophia Hollander 2011
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The title pretty much says it all but be prepared for a lot of twists and turns in the storyline; surprise elements that only a talented voice such as Cairo could come up with.
Deep Throat Diva Cairo 2011
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The title pretty much sums up the goal of the book: guilt by association.
Terry Krepel: 'The Manchurian President': Conspiracy Theories, Birtherism, and Guilt by Association 2010
jeffazi commented on the word pretty
pleasing by delicacy or grace; not imposing.
October 31, 2007