nasty
Definitions
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WordNet 3.6
- adj nasty disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter "as filthy as a pigsty","a foul pond","a nasty pigsty of a room"
- adj nasty characterized by obscenity "had a filthy mouth","foul language","smutty jokes"
- adj nasty exasperatingly difficult to handle or circumvent "a nasty problem","a good man to have on your side in a tight situation"
- adj nasty offensive or even (of persons) malicious "in a nasty mood","a nasty accident","a nasty shock","a nasty smell","a nasty trick to pull","Will he say nasty things at my funeral?"- Ezra Pound"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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- Nasty Characterized by obscenity; indecent; indelicate; gross; filthy.
- Nasty Difficult to deal with; troublesome; as, he fell of his bike and got a nasty bruise on his knee.
- Nasty Hence, loosely: Offensive; disagreeable; unpropitious; wet; drizzling; as, a nasty rain, day, sky.
- Nasty Offensively filthy; very dirty, foul, or defiled; disgusting; nauseous.
- Nasty Vicious; offensively ill-tempered; insultingly mean; spiteful; as, a nasty disposition.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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- nasty Filthy; dirty; foul; unclean, either literally or figuratively. Physically filthy or dirty.
- nasty Of filthy habits.
- nasty Morally filthy; indecent; ribald; indelicate: applied to speech or behavior.
- nasty Nauseous; disgusting to taste or smell: as, a nasty medicine.
- nasty In a weakened sense, disagreeable; bad.
- nasty Foul; stormy; disagreeable; unpleasant: applied to the weather. Compare dirty and foul in the same sense.
- nasty Troublesome; annoying; difficult to deal with, or threatening trouble; of a kind to be avoided: as, a nasty customer to deal with; a nasty cut or fall.
- nasty Ill-natured; mean; dishonorable; hateful: as, a nasty remark; a nasty trick.
- nasty Synonyms 1 and 3. Nasty, Filthy, Foul, Dirty. These words are on the descending scale of strength. Nasty is the strongest word in the language for that which is offensive to sight, smell, or touch by the quality of its uncleanness or uncleanliness, The English fondness for the colloquial use of the word in connection with bad weather, and figuratively for anything disagreeable, is not matched by anything in America; on the contrary, the word is considered too strong for ordinary or delicate use, and foul is used of bad weather. All the words apply to that which is filled or covered in considerable degree with anything offensive. The moral uses of the word correspond with the physical.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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- adj Nasty nas′ti dirty: filthy: obscene: disagreeable to the taste or smell: difficult to deal with: ill-natured: nauseous
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Quotations
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“Let's not be narrow, nasty, and negative.” -
“Discipline is not a nasty word.” -
“Quite a nasty piece of work. Not the sort of person you'd want to have dinner with. [On the subject of Mr. Bean]”
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“A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself.” -
“Man is the only creature who has a nasty mind.”
Idioms
Something nasty in the woodshed - Something nasty in the woodshed means that someone as a dark secret or an unpleasant experience in their past.
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Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
For older nasky,; cf. dial. Sw. naskug, nasket,
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Old form nasky, soft; cf. prov. Swed. snaskig, nasty, Low Ger. nask, nasty.
Usage
In literature:
I only hope you won't catch any of his nasty tricks in 'em.
"The Adventures of Harry Revel" by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
No dispassionate auditor could have failed to detect the nasty ring of sarcasm.
"Jill the Reckless" by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
They would be sure to pass their nasty personal remarks upon it.
"Tom, Dick and Harry" by Talbot Baines Reed
If it comes on to blow again from the south and the sea should get up, we'll be in a nasty position.
"The Wreck of the Nancy Bell" by J. C. Hutcheson
I was really afraid those nasty Frenchmen had eaten you up, you have been such a long time away!
"She and I, Volume 1" by John Conroy Hutcheson
You are a nasty fellow to have for an enemy, Forsyth!
"For Fortune and Glory" by Lewis Hough
Its eyes were enormous, but nearly covered by a nasty-looking skin, which seemed to be stretched over them.
"Burr Junior" by G. Manville Fenn
A nasty ungrateful brute!
"Dick o' the Fens" by George Manville Fenn
It does seem a nasty turn, but it was not our fault.
"Fitz the Filibuster" by George Manville Fenn
That nasty look of his always makes me feel hot.
"Glyn Severn's Schooldays" by George Manville Fenn
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In poetry:
Q. But who unfit can enter there,
Or with such nasty feet?
A. Christ by his blood presents thee fair,
His Spirit makes thee meet.
Or with such nasty feet?
A. Christ by his blood presents thee fair,
His Spirit makes thee meet.
"The Believer's Principles : Chap. I." by Ralph Erskine
But one day, one cold winter’s day
He screamed out-‘Take the soup away:
Oh, take the nasty soup away!
I won’t have any soup today.’
He screamed out-‘Take the soup away:
Oh, take the nasty soup away!
I won’t have any soup today.’
"The Story of Augustus who would not have any Soup" by Heinrich Hoffmann
The rest fled, for none dared linger,
But they turned when far off to cry,
While each of them pointed a finger:
"What a great, nasty troll! oh, fie!"
But they turned when far off to cry,
While each of them pointed a finger:
"What a great, nasty troll! oh, fie!"
"The Old Mountain Troll" by Gustaf Froding
Where vice is virtue - virtue, vice:
Where nice is nasty - nasty, nice:
Where right is wrong and wrong is right -
Where white is black and black is white.
Where nice is nasty - nasty, nice:
Where right is wrong and wrong is right -
Where white is black and black is white.
"My Dream" by William Schwenck Gilbert
Consaited and cocky, an full o' what's nowt,
An shoo'd say nasty things withaat ivver a thowt;
An shood try ivvery way, just to mak me get mad;---
For shoo knew shoo wor bonny,--soa bonny mi lad.
An shoo'd say nasty things withaat ivver a thowt;
An shood try ivvery way, just to mak me get mad;---
For shoo knew shoo wor bonny,--soa bonny mi lad.
"Soa Bonny" by John Hartley
My name it is " Defiance," an' my natur's much the same,
For towin' on the River Clyde is more 'n just a game.
I'm gettin' old, they says—oh, my ! they do say nasty things! —
But still I takes my fill o' coal, an' still I sweetly sings—
For towin' on the River Clyde is more 'n just a game.
I'm gettin' old, they says—oh, my ! they do say nasty things! —
But still I takes my fill o' coal, an' still I sweetly sings—
"Song Of A Tug" by John Joy Bell
In news:
The moonshine tasted "pretty nasty," Davis said, but was strong.
Wojo's picks: Nastiness returns to Michigan-Ohio State game.
Oregon Ducks offensive line raises bar on 'aggressive nastiness '.
Election nastiness as old as politics.
When nastiness supersedes substance Southeastern Connecticut News, Sports, Weather and Video The Day newspaper.
What is beneath political nastiness .
" Nastiness " Causes Rick Warren To Cancel Obama-Romney Forum (Updated).
The Nastiness of 2012 Romney isn't fighting back quite as effectively as he should be.
Rejected fans' nastiness a nuisance to recruiters.
A nice guy in a season of nastiness .
Why can't Gawker do nastiness the right way.
Warchief Rok battles nasty spiders in the iPad game ORC : Vengeance.
The proxy fight between Yahoo and activist shareholder firm Third Point just got extra nasty.
Nasty Gal clothing is red-hot.
Prepayment Clauses Come With Some Nasty Surprises.
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In science:
The ultimate manifestation of the nastiness of an O star is the expulsion of its outer layers in a supernova explosion (Figure 2d, from Hughes et al. 2000).
Watching the Birth of Super Star Clusters
Hille mentioned that “the various proofs are nasty,” while omitting them.
Complex Singularities and the Lorenz Attractor
It appears that use of the Laplace transform and the implicit function theorem will give simpler proofs for plane polynomial systems and complete proofs that are not so nasty in the case of the Emden-Fowler system with 2p a positive integer.
Complex Singularities and the Lorenz Attractor
To see why this type of matrix is nasty, it is helpful to consider the auxiliary matrix W = V ∗DF .
Finding structure with randomness: Probabilistic algorithms for constructing approximate matrix decompositions
It is difficult to imagine that scalar fields can hold similar nasty surprises; they do not even have a nontrivial transformation law.
Empirical Equivalence, Artificial Gauge Freedom and a Generalized Kretschmann Objection
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