neat

Less common meanings

6. 6
   exclamationinterjection

   Used to express approval, pleasure, or acknowledgment that something has been done well.

   Neat! That's exactly the kind of idea we need.

   He grinned and said "Neat" when he saw the surprise.

   Similargreat, nice

7. 7
   lab reactionadjective

   Of a reaction or its conditions, carried out with a liquid reagent or gas alone, using no standard solvent or cosolvent.

   The chemists ran the reaction neat to avoid contaminating the product with solvent.

   Performed neat, the process required careful temperature control.

   Note

   In the laboratory the word describes a reagent with nothing to dissolve it in. It is probably the undiluted-drink meaning carried into the lab, where neat means that nothing has been added.

8. 8
   adjectivearchaic

   Remaining after all deductions or allowances have been made; net.

   Why without telling the least title of Falshood, within the space of the last Week’s Play, the Gains of Count Cog, really amounted to no less than Twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling neat Money.

   1720, William Bond, The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell

   Note

   A bookkeeping use of the eighteenth century, when neat and net were still one word in two spellings. David Hume writes of Ireland remitting 'a neat million' to England in 1752, and John Brand of a landlord's 'neat income' in 1793. Both spellings descend from the same French net. In modern writing use net, and read neat in older treatises as meaning the same thing. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • Neat was used in eighteenth-century financial writing to mean net. en.wiktionary.org
   • Neat and net were alternative forms in this sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • David Hume wrote about Ireland remitting 'a neat million' to England. gutenberg.org
   • Hume's Political Discourses was first published in 1752. gutenberg.org
   • John Brand wrote of a landlord's 'neat income'. en.wiktionary.org
   • Neat and net share an origin in French net. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   nounarchaic

   A cow, bull, or ox, or such animals collectively; cattle.

   Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only commendable / In a neat's tongue dried.

   c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”

   Sturdy he was, and no less able, / Then Hercules to clense a Stable; / As great: Drover, and as great / A Critick too, in Hog or Neat,

   1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”

   Note

   This is a different word that happens to share the spelling. It comes from Old English nēat, 'beast, ox, cow', and a Germanic root for property and livestock, so it is unrelated to the tidy neat. It survives in Shakespeare's possessives: 'a neat's tongue dried' in The Merchant of Venice and 'neat's leather' in The Tempest. Thomas Tusser in 1557 advises killing 'a neate' of one's own. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts

   • The cattle word neat has a different origin from the adjective meaning tidy. en.wiktionary.org
   • The cattle word descends from Old English nēat, meaning beast, ox or cow. en.wiktionary.org
   • Its Germanic ancestor referred to property and livestock. en.wiktionary.org
   • The cattle word is etymologically unrelated to tidy neat, which has a French and Latin origin. en.wiktionary.org
   • Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice contains 'a neat's tongue dried', spoken by Gratiano in Act I, scene i. gutenberg.org
   • Shakespeare's The Tempest contains 'neat's leather', spoken by Stephano in Act II, scene ii. gutenberg.org
   • Thomas Tusser advises killing 'a neate' of one's own in A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie. gutenberg.org
   • Tusser's passage belongs to the original 1557 publication. gutenberg.org
10. 10
    nouncolloquial

    In artificial intelligence, a researcher who holds that solutions should be elegant, clear, and provably correct.