neat

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈniːt/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”). Compare also nait.

Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.
“My room is neat because I tidied it this morning. She has very neat hair.”
“Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.”
Free from contaminants; unadulterated, undiluted. Particularly of liquor and cocktails; see usage below.
“I like my whisky neat.”
“1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 464-465, A cup of neate wine of Orleance, That never came neer the brewers of England.”
Conditions with a liquid reagent or gas performed with no standard solvent or cosolvent.
“The Arbuzov reaction is performed by adding the bromide to the phosphite, neat. The molecular beam was neat acetylene.”
With all deductions or allowances 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.”
“Dr. Swift […] says, in his short view of the state of Ireland, that the whole cash of that kingdom amounted to 500,000 l. that out of this they remitted every year a neat million to England, and had scarce any other source to compensate themselves from […]”
Having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim, tidy, tasteful.
“The front room was neat and carefully arranged for the guests.”
Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.
“Having the two protagonists meet in the last act was a particularly neat touch.”
Facile; missing complexity or details in the favor of convenience or simplicity.
“Courts should not reduce this case to a neat set of legal rules.”
Good, excellent, desirable; interesting; cool.
“Hey, neat convertible, man.”
“"You can tell that Rory has had this type of talent in him for some time now, and to see him putting it together is pretty neat to see."”
Obsolete form of net (“remaining after expenses or deductions”).
“What is the neat weight of 4 hogsheads of tobacco, each weighing 10cwt. 3qrs. 10lb. gross; — tare 100lb. per hdd.?”

intj

Used to signify a job well done.
Used to signify approval.

name

Etymology: English metonymic occupational surname for a herdsman or a nickname for someone thought to resemble an ox or a cow, from Middle English neat (“ox, cow”), from Old English neat.

A surname from Middle English.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English nete, neat, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-West Germanic *naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”). More at note.

Cattle collectively.
“From thence into the open fields he fled, / Whereas the Heardes were keeping of their neat / And shepheards singing to their flockes, that fed,”
“And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf / Are all call’d neat.”