pretty

1. 1

   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: 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; only superficially attractive; initially appealing but having little substance; see petty.derogatoryoften

   • 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. 4

   Effeminate.UKderogatorysometimes

5. 5

   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 […].
6. 6

   Moderately large; considerable.dated

   • 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.
7. 7

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

   • 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.
8. 8

   Awkward, unpleasant, bad.ironic

   • "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—[…]
9. 9

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

ant. ugly

1. 1

   Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.not-comparable

   • 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 [...].
2. 2

   Prettily, in a pretty manner.dialectalnot-comparable

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

1. 1

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

   • I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!
2. 2

   Something that is pretty.

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

1. 1

   To make pretty; to beautify

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