nasty

Formsnastier, nastiest

Pluralnasties

1. 1
   adjective

   Unpleasant, offensive, or repellent to the senses or feelings.

   A nasty odor filled the kitchen after the pipe burst.

   The soup had a nasty, bitter aftertaste.

   Similarunpleasant, foul, horrible, disgusting, vile

   Oppositepleasant, nice, agreeable

2. 2
   adjective

   Spiteful or unkind in words or behavior, intended to hurt.

   He sent a nasty email blaming everyone but himself.

   Their argument turned nasty within minutes.

   Similarspiteful, mean, unkind, malicious, vicious

   Oppositekind, nice, friendly

3. 3
   adjective

   Contemptible or thoroughly unpleasant as a person.

   The new manager turned out to be a nasty piece of work.

   Only a nasty individual would treat staff that way.

   Similarhorrible, unpleasant, mean, vile, despicable

   Oppositenice, pleasant, kind

4. 4
   adjectiveUS

   Dirty, filthy, or unclean to a disgusting degree.

   His sneakers were too nasty to wear to the party.

   She refused to touch the nasty dishrag in the sink.

   Similarfilthy, dirty, disgusting, grimy, foul

   Oppositeclean

   Note

   The oldest sense, and the one the word arrived with: Middle English nasty, nasti or naxty already meant "unclean, filthy", though where that word came from is unknown. Hobbes uses it in Leviathan (1651), but it is now chiefly American. There it still names visible dirt on clothes, dishrags and sneakers, as in a schoolchild's complaint that "my clothes are nasty."

5. 5
   adjective

   Indecent, lewd, or offensive in a sexual or obscene way.

   The comedian's act was full of nasty innuendo.

   She blushed at the nasty remark and changed the subject.

   Similardirty, lewd, obscene, smutty, filthy

   Oppositeclean, decent

   Note

   Here the dirt has become sexual. Dorothy L Sayers's Murder Must Advertise (1933) gives the classic collocation: a nasty mind finds indecency in an innocent headline. Later uses can be approving rather than shocked, as when someone is wanted "nasty in bed", so tone decides whether the word reproaches or relishes. The slang noun for sex comes from the same territory.

6. 6
   adjectiveUK

   Serious, grave, or dangerous, as of an accident or illness.

   He had a nasty accident on the motorway last winter.

   The doctor said it was a particularly nasty infection.

   Similarserious, bad, severe, grave

   Oppositeminor, mild, slight

   Note

   Like the "hard to get through" sense, it is chiefly British, and it often sounds milder than what it reports. The Guardian in 2012 calls William the Conqueror's fall from his horse "a nasty fall", and that fall killed him. With accidents, falls and illnesses, the word signals real seriousness, not mere unpleasantness.

7. 7
   adjectiveUK

   Awkward and difficult to navigate or get through; dangerous.

   Drivers should watch for a nasty corner just past the bridge.

   They faced a nasty stretch of road full of potholes.

   Similardangerous, treacherous, tricky, awkward, hazardous

   Oppositesafe, easy

   Note

   Chiefly British, and broader than corners and potholes: it covers any passage that is hard to get through safely. The Observer in 2007 writes of "a nasty period" during the First World War, when a family's allegiance was in question. That is a stretch of time rather than terrain, but it is treacherous in the same way.

8. 8
   adjectiveslangUS

   Impressively skilled, powerful, or formidable; remarkably good.

   The pitcher's slider was downright nasty all season.

   He's got a nasty crossover that leaves defenders stumbling.

   Similarfilthy, sick, wicked

   Note

   Here insult turns into praise. In American slang, the word's distaste flips into admiration for something too good to answer, such as a pitch, a crossover or a move. Noire's Thug-A-Licious (2006) has a player doing "real nasty" things in the NBA. The hostile senses, like the "repellent" meaning, stay fully alive, so only context marks it as a compliment. Keep it to casual talk.

9. 9
   nounslangeuphemistic

   A playful, euphemistic slang term for sexual intercourse, always preceded by the.

   The two of them snuck off to do the nasty.

   She joked that the couple next door were always doing the nasty.

   Note

   A joking euphemism that names sex while teasing it as dirty, a wink back at the "filthy" meaning. It always takes the article and almost always follows do: people do the nasty, never a nasty. It belongs to playful, casual talk. In serious or formal writing it sounds flippant, so a neutral term is the safer choice there.

10. 10
    nouncolloquialcountable

    An unpleasant or harmful thing.

    The survey turned up a nasty hidden in the contract's fine print.

    Cleaning the shed, she found all sorts of nasties in the corners.

    Note

    Mostly heard in the plural, nasties, as a breezy catch-all for anything unwelcome. It can mean additives in processed food, the enemies a video game asks you to zap, or a list of minor ailments. The word lumps them together without naming them, which is exactly its appeal in casual writing.

11. 11
    nouncountable

    A violent or graphically horrific film, especially one considered obscene or banned from sale.

    The censors pulled the nasty from every video store in town.

    Collectors still hunt for banned nasties from the early eighties.

    Note

    A clipping of video nasty, and usually plural. A 1984 issue of ThirdWay talks of "the nasties" as a category to be dealt with, while the remainder were to be regularized. By 2014, Mark Bernard's Selling the Splat Pack could invoke them as a byword for outlaw horror.

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