Link Centre Dictionary

neat

UK/niːt/ US/ˈnɪi̯t/ common informal us

adjective

1.

clean or orderly

  • “her neat dress”
  • “a neat room”
Similar
2.

showing care in execution

  • “neat homework”
  • “neat handwriting”
Similar
3.

free from what is tawdry or unbecoming

  • “a neat style”
  • “a neat set of rules”
  • “she hated to have her neat plans upset”
Synonyms
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4.

free from clumsiness; precisely or deftly executed

  • “he landed a clean left on his opponent”
  • “;”
  • “;”
  • “s knife”
Synonyms
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5.

very good

  • “he did a bully job”
  • “a neat sports car”
  • “had a great time at the party”
  • “you look simply smashing”
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6.

without water

  • “took his whiskey neat”
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Origin

From Middle English net, neet, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-West Germanic *naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”). More at note.

Phrases

  • in neat
  • neat and tidy
  • neat as a button
  • neat as a new pin
  • neat as a pin
  • neat as ninepence
  • neat freak
  • neat line

Related words

Word family

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.