 4 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
pretty
adjective
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"
adverb: 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 The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pretty \Pret"ty\, adjective [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.
This is the prettiest lowborn lass that ever
Ran on the greensward. --Shak.
2. Moderately large; considerable; as, he had saved a pretty
fortune. ''Wavering a pretty while.'' --Evelyn.
3. Affectedly nice; foppish; -- used in an ill sense.
The pretty gentleman is the most complaisant in the
world. --Spectator.
4. Mean; despicable; contemptible; -- used ironically; as, a
pretty trick; a pretty fellow.
5. Stout; strong and brave; intrepid; valiant. [Scot.]
[He] observed they were pretty men, meaning not
handsome. --Sir W.
Scott.
Syn: Elegant; neat; fine. See {Handsome}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pretty \Pret"ty\, adverb
In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; --
less emphatic than very; as, I am pretty sure of the fact;
pretty cold weather.
Pretty plainly professes himself a sincere Christian.
--Atterbury.
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
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