- 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." [Shak.]
- Moderately large; considerable; as, he had saved a pretty fortune."Wavering a prettywhile." [Evelyn.]
- Affectedly nice; foppish; -- used in an ill sense."The pretty gentleman is the most complaisant in the world." [Spectator.]
- 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." [Sir W. Scott.]synonyms: Elegant; neat; fine. See Handsome.
Etymology: OE. prati, AS. prættig prætig, crafty, sly, akin to præt prætt, deceit, trickery, Icel. prettugr tricky, prettr a trick; probably fr. Latin, perhaps through Celtic; cf. W. praith act, deed, practice, LL. practica execution, practice, plot. See Practice