rortyadj.

1868 All Year Round 25 Apr. 470/1 I have a rorty gal, also a knowing pal, And merrily together we go on.

1879 ‘'Arry’ in Parry in Punch 15 Nov. 217/1 [Paris] Not so rorty as London, I said, and I sticks to it... But jolly? Well, no, not percisely... There ain't enough body about it, no row-de-row rollick and ramp.

1898 R. Hichens Londoners xvi. 280 ‘Tell us a good story, Rodney—one of your rorty ones.’ Mr. Rodney shrivelled. ‘I fear’, he murmured—‘I fear I am scarcely in the—the—er—rorty vein to-night.’

1899 R. Whiteing No. 5 John St. ix. 95 She is Boadicea..no ‘British warrior queen’ of nursery recitation, but a right-down ‘raughty gal’, leading her alley [sic] to battle against the Roman ‘slops’.

1914 ‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions xvii. 144 I've heard her talking like a Mother to a rorty Midshipman.

?1919 J. Joyce Let. (1957) 131 Prolonged universal applause, shouts Hear Hear from a raughty tinker and an Irishman in the gallery.

1932 S. Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm xvi. 217 Compared with the heavy, muffling darkness of the night in which the countryside was sunk, the lights looked positively rorty.

1950 ‘D. Divine’ King of Fassarai xxix. 255 It [sc. coconut milk] comes rortier if you leave it..to ferment, but it's got a kick now.

1955 N. Coward Diary 30 Oct. (2000) 288 How Evelyn can carry on with her flaming sex life at her great age is truly remarkable. In cat language she must be rising eighty. It must be lack of religious scruples that has kept her so rorty.

1969 W. Tute Matter of Diplomacy ii. 16 The rorty brigadier must have a taste for lean stringy meat, though of course she had been a baronet's daughter and that made up for a lot.

1978 C. Beaton Parting Years 160 Anne Tree is likewise an oversize personality and character—rorty, Hogarthian and with exquisite understanding of character.

2002 L. Purves Radio (2003) iv. 70 It felt very cold, and I was glad that my next job was up among the rorty Latinos on the fifth floor.

1971 Sunday Nation (Nairobi) 11 Apr. 29/3 The once-called ‘power roar’ from the engine compartment..never became obtrusive or ‘rorty’.

1996 A. Alvarez Night vi. 265 The Italians..like their motorbikes unsilenced and their car engines rorty.

2006 Torque July 69 The turbo'd three-cylinder emits a pleasantly rorty note.

1878 Punch 2 Nov. 196/2 Yours rortily, 'Arry.

1939 R. Ferguson Passionate Kensington xiv. 281 It is a place which just reminds you that you must eat to live, whereas the ideal kitchen garden rortily, fruitily chuckles at you that it is far more fun to live to eat.

1967 Classic Car Profiles No. 65 10/1 It would ‘popple’ up the Malvern Hills at a tickover in first, and almost come to rest without one's slipping the clutch; yet it would pull away rortily without any effort whatever.

1885 Judy 1 July 4/2 Surely no histrion ever threw more heart and soul into his work than the modern stage coster... No matter, he is proud of his rortiness, that is certain.

1991 What Car? Apr. (Ford Advt. Insert) 11/1 The S feels really lively with its 108bhp 1.6-litre engine. But it's quite refined with just a hint of rortiness to it.