adj.
(prettier, prettiest)
- attractive in a delicate way without being truly beautiful.
- informal used ironically to express displeasure:
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he led me a pretty dance.
adv.
informal to a moderately high degree; fairly.
n.
(pl. pretties)
informal a pretty thing; a trinket.
▸(used condescendingly) an attractive person.
v.
(pretties, prettying, prettied)
make pretty or attractive.
Phrase
- pretty much
(or nearly or well)
informal very nearly. - a pretty penny
informal a large sum of money. - be sitting pretty
informal be in an advantageous position or situation.
Derivative
- prettily adv.
- prettiness n.
- prettyish adj.
History
In Old English pretty (spelled prættig) meant ‘cunning or crafty’, coming as it did from a West Germanic base meaning ‘trick’. By the Middle Ages pretty had come to mean ‘clever, skilful, or ingenious’. The sense development ‘deceitful, cunning, clever, skilful, admirable, pleasing, attractive’ has parallels in adjectives such as nice.
