nicely
- 1In a pleasant, agreeable way, or well enough to be satisfactory.
Her stitches are healing nicely, the doctor said.
The spare room is small, but it will do nicely for a couple of nights.
Similarwell, fine, pleasantly, satisfactorily
Note
Paired with do, it says that something will serve well enough: the spare room will do nicely for a night. The same pairing turns cool in can do nicely without, a polite way of saying someone is not needed, as in Lou Sullivan's diary, quoted in We Both Laughed In Pleasure (2019): "the kind of man I can do nicely without".
- 2In a precise way that shows fine discernment or judgment.
Her reply was nicely judged, conceding just enough to the critics without giving away the argument.
It is a nicely calibrated instrument, sensitive to the slightest change in pressure.
Similarfinely, precisely, delicately, carefully
Note
The meaning praises exactness rather than charm, and it often sits before a past participle: the schooner in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883) "must be nicely handled to be got in", and Ford Madox Ford calls an army "a very complex and nicely adjusted affair". A remark nicely observed is sharply accurate, not kind, which is where it parts from the everyday pleasant meaning.
- 3In a careful, fastidious manner.
Note
The fussy, painstaking meaning has dropped out of use. In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) a mistrustful figure "nicely trode", setting each foot down as if thorns lay in his way. A modern reader would hear the pleasant meaning instead, so this one belongs to older texts, where it is easy to misread.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English nycely, equivalent to nice + -ly.