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/prˈɪti/ Listen

adverb

Pretty adv. In some degree; moderately; considerably; rather; almost; less emphatic than very; as, I am pretty sure of the fact; pretty cold weather. "Pretty plainly professes himself a sincere Christian."

adjective

Pretty adj. (compar. prettier; superl. prettiest)

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."

Moderately large; considerable; as, he had saved a pretty fortune. "Wavering a pretty while."

Affectedly nice; foppish; used in an ill sense. "The pretty gentleman is the most complaisant in the world."

Mean; despicable; contemptible; used ironically; as, a pretty trick; a pretty fellow.

Stout; strong and brave; intrepid; valiant. (Scot.) "(He) observed they were pretty men, meaning not handsome."

Synonyms: Elegant; neat; fine. See Handsome.

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Etymology of 'Pretty'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pretty" Quotes from Famous Books

... "Why, pretty much like yourself, and other company I have kept here so many years—as stout a heart, as empty a head," said Charles—"as much lace, though somewhat tarnished, as much brass on the brow, and nearly as much copper ...

— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... particular to have on a clean apron when she was likely to meet him. She looked at her own eyes in a bit of broken looking-glass, and wondered whether they seemed as handsome to him as his eyes did to her. In her own opinion she had rather pretty eyes, and she was not mistaken; for the Scriptural description, "black, but comely," was applicable to her. Jim never told her so, but she had somehow received an impression that perhaps he thought so. Sometimes he helped her turn the fish on ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 • Various

... well reduced towards the end of the siege: one biscuit, one pound of horseflesh, two teaspoonfuls of sugar, and a pinch of tea is not much to keep body and soul together, and we were all pretty feeble and pulled down. I think we must have done the record piquet duty of any men in any service, as we were never relieved throughout the whole siege; I suppose this was on account of being left ...

— The Second Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the South African War - With a Description of the Operations in the Aden Hinterland • Cecil Francis Romer and Arthur Edward Mainwaring

... that," said the father at length; "I am getting too old to indulge in the luxury of pride. I will attend your marriage. I will smile and say pretty things to the bridesmaids. Before the world I will consent under the condition that the ceremony does not take place before ...

— With Edged Tools • Henry Seton Merriman

... admirer who on his way down to Rome had stopped neither at Bologna nor at Florence, simply because of a certain sentimental impatience. He remembered that a cynical compatriot had once told him that American women—the pretty ones, and this gave a largeness to the axiom—were at once the most exacting in the world and the least endowed with a ...

— Daisy Miller • Henry James

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