natty1
/ˈnati
/adjective (nattier, nattiest) informal
1(Of a person or an article of clothing) smart and fashionable: a natty blue blazer...
- And their teacher: he's a tall, very urbane and rather natty man, with a grave manner.
- British playwright Noel Coward was natty and flamboyant, a born performer.
- According to the nosy old woman next door, the victim took the room with a companion, a natty man answering to the name of ‘Frenchy’.
Synonyms
smart, stylish, fashionable, dapper, debonair, dashing, jaunty, rakish, spruce, well turned out, well dressed, chic, modish, elegant, trim
informal snazzy, trendy, cool, sharp, snappy, with it, nifty, groovy
North American informal kicking, kicky, tony, fly, spiffy, sassy, stylin'
US informal on fleek
dated as if one had just stepped out of a bandbox
archaic trig
1.1Well designed; clever: a palmtop computer with many natty features...
- The company (who provide the natty little search feature in the navbar of this site) record for me what people search for.
- The top-end model boasts natty features such as brakes linked to a laser that detects nearby vehicles.
- After removal, store the lenses in those natty little screw cap holders that the lens solution people give you with the bottle of goop.
Derivatives
nattily
/ adverb ...- A line of nattily dressed corporate vice presidents - looking distinctly out of place in such a dive - sit at the counter reading menus.
- Koch is dressed nattily, as usual - crisp chinos and a long-waisted Cuban shirt - and he works the room like a seasoned pro.
- Beside her is her smaller, slimmer, nattily dressed partner.
nattiness
/ noun ...- There is a kind of theatrical nattiness to his outfit today.
- Ms. Prada's collection is all British nattiness, with the tailoring coming from high-tech stretch fabrics and the richness from waves of bottle green, camels and grays.
- The nattiness and pizzazz I've described are intentionally amusing.
Origin
Late 18th century (originally slang): perhaps related to neat1.
The informal word natty, ‘smart or stylish’, probably comes from neat. It was first recorded in 1785, in The Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose, which was a collection of slang terms that Dr Johnson had deliberately left out of his dictionary of 1755. Natty lads in those days were young thieves or pickpockets. A quotation from the poet Shelley (1812) shows the modern meaning: ‘As natty a beau, As Bond Street ever saw.’ Among Rastafarians natty is used to describe hair that is uncombed or matted, as in dreadlocks; in this context it is a form of knotty. A natty dread is a Rastafarian. See also dread
Rhymes
natty2
/ˈnati/adjective
(Among Rastafarians) denoting hair that is uncombed or matted, as in dreadlocks.The hippie had natty blond hair, and large, vacant-looking eyes with wrinkles around them.
Origin
1970s: variant of knotty.