Link Centre Dictionary

nasty

UK/ˈnɑː.sti/ US/ˈnaː.sti/ common informal slang uk us

adjective

1.

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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2.

exasperatingly difficult to handle or circumvent

  • “a nasty problem”
  • “a good man to have on your side in a tight situation”
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3.

thoroughly unpleasant

  • “filthy (or foul or nasty or vile) weather we”
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4.

characterized by obscenity

  • “had a filthy mouth”
  • “foul language”
  • “smutty jokes”
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5.

disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter

  • “as filthy as a pigsty”
  • “a foul pond”
  • “a nasty pigsty of a room”
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Origin

From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of North Germanic origin (comparable to Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”), Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”), Swedish naskig, naskug (“nasty, dirty, messy”)), themselves all probably related to Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”). Likely doublet of nesh and nosh. Cognate with Scots nastie, nestie (“dirty, filthy”). Alternative theories have also been proposed, which include: * From Low German nask (“nasty”) + -y. * Middle Dutch nestich, nistich ("nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)), perhaps ultimately connected to the Scandinavian word above, or related to *nest (“nest”). * From Old French nastre (“lowly, strange”), shortened form of villenastre (“infamous, bad”), from vilein (“villain”) + -astre (pejorative suffix), from Latin -aster. * Other suggestions include Old High German naz (“wet”), hardening of English nesh(y) (“soft”), or alteration of English naughty. ...

Phrases

  • bag nasty
  • box nasty
  • cheap and nasty
  • cut up nasty
  • do the nasty
  • dry as a nun's nasty
  • Jack Nasty
  • Nasty Pelosi
  • nasty, brutish, and short
  • video nasty

Related words

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.