DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Pret·ty a. [Compar. Prettier superl. Prettiest.]
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.”
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.
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]