Word Study
nasty
CIDE DICTIONARY
nasty, a. [For older nasky; cf. dial. Sw. naskug, nasket.].
- Offensively filthy; very dirty, foul, or defiled; disgusting; nauseous. [1913 Webster]
- Hence, loosely: Offensive; disagreeable; unpropitious; wet; drizzling; as, a nasty rain, day, sky. [1913 Webster]
- Characterized by obscenity; indecent; indelicate; gross; filthy. [1913 Webster]
- Vicious; offensively ill-tempered; insultingly mean; spiteful; as, a nasty disposition. [PJC]
- Difficult to deal with; troublesome; as, he fell of his bike and got a nasty bruise on his knee. [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
nasty, adj. (nastier, nastiest)
1 a highly unpleasant (a nasty experience). b annoying; objectionable (the car has a nasty habit of breaking down).
2 difficult to negotiate; dangerous, serious (a nasty fence; a nasty question; a nasty illness).
3 (of a person or animal) ill-natured, ill-tempered, spiteful; violent, offensive (nasty to his mother; turns nasty when he's drunk).
4 (of the weather) foul, wet, stormy.
5 a disgustingly dirty, filthy. b unpalatable; disagreeable (nasty smell). c (of a wound) septic.
6 a obscene. b delighting in obscenity.
1 a highly unpleasant (a nasty experience). b annoying; objectionable (the car has a nasty habit of breaking down).
2 difficult to negotiate; dangerous, serious (a nasty fence; a nasty question; a nasty illness).
3 (of a person or animal) ill-natured, ill-tempered, spiteful; violent, offensive (nasty to his mother; turns nasty when he's drunk).
4 (of the weather) foul, wet, stormy.
5 a disgustingly dirty, filthy. b unpalatable; disagreeable (nasty smell). c (of a wound) septic.
6 a obscene. b delighting in obscenity.
Idiom
a nasty bit (or piece) of work colloq. an unpleasant or contemptible person. a nasty one
1 a rebuff; a snub.
2 an awkward question.
3 a disabling blow etc.
1 a rebuff; a snub.
2 an awkward question.
3 a disabling blow etc.
Derivative
nastily adv. nastiness n.
Etymology
ME: orig. unkn.
THESAURUS
nasty
Fescennine, Rabelaisian, abhorrent, abominable, abusive, acute, annoying, arrant, atrocious, awful, awkward, bad, bad-tempered, baleful, barfy, base, bawdy, beastly, below contempt, beneath contempt, bitchy, black, blameworthy, blue, boorish, brackish, brutal, caddish, cantankerous, churlish, cloying, coarse, contemptible, crabbed, cranky, crappy, critical, crotchety, crude, cruel, cussed, dangerous, deplorable, despicable, detestable, difficult, dire, dirty, disagreeable, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, enormous, evil, execrable, fecal, feculent, fetid, filthy, flagrant, flyblown, forbidding, foul, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, foul-tongued, fulsome, gloppy, grievous, gross, grubby, gunky, harmful, hateful, heinous, high, horrible, horrid, icky, ignoble, ill-bred, ill-natured, ill-tempered, improper, impure, inconsiderate, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, infamous, iniquitous, insensitive, invidious, irascible, ithyphallic, lamentable, lewd, licentious, loathsome, lousy, loutish, louty, lurid, maggoty, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, malodorous, mawkish, mean, mephitic, miasmal, miasmic, monstrous, mucky, nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, nefarious, noisome, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, off color, offensive, ordurous, ornery, outrageous, overripe, painful, pitiable, pitiful, poisonous, pornographic, puky, putrid, rancid, rank, raunchy, rebarbative, regrettable, repellent, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, ribald, risque, rotten, rude, sad, salacious, scabby, scandalous, scatological, schlock, scummy, scurfy, scurrile, scurrilous, scurvy, serious, severe, shabby, shameful, shitty, shocking, shoddy, sickening, slabby, slimy, sloppy, sloshy, sludgy, slushy, smoking-room, smutty, soily, sordid, spiteful, spoiled, sposhy, squalid, stinking, suggestive, sultry, surly, tactless, terrible, too bad, ugly, unchaste, unclean, uncleanly, unfeminine, ungenteel, ungentle, ungentlemanly, unladylike, unpleasant, unprintable, unrefined, unrepeatable, unsavory, unseemly, unsolicitous, untoward, vicious, vile, villainous, vomity, vulgar, weevily, wicked, woeful, wormy, worst, worthless, wretched, yecchy, yuckyROGET THESAURUS
nasty
Uncleanness
N uncleanness, impurity, immundity, immundicity, impurity, defilement, contamination, defoedation, soilure, soiliness, abomination, leaven, taint, tainture, fetor, decay, putrescence, putrefaction, corruption, mold, must, mildew, dry rot, mucor, rubigo, slovenry, slovenliness, squalor, dowdy, drab, slut, malkin, slattern, sloven, slammerkin, slammock, slummock, scrub, draggle-tail, mudlark, dust-man, sweep, beast, dirt, filth, soil, slop, dust, cobweb, flue, smoke, soot, smudge, smut, grit, grime, raff, sossle, sozzle, sordes, dregs, grounds, lees, argol, sediment, settlement heeltap, dross, drossiness, mother, precipitate, scoriae, ashes, cinders, recrement, slag, scum, froth, hogwash, ditchwater, dishwater, bilgewater, rinsings, cheeseparings, sweepings, offscourings, outscourings, off scum, caput mortuum, residuum, sprue, fecula, clinker, draff, scurf, scurfiness, exuviae, morphea, fur, furfur, dandruff, tartar, riffraff, vermin, louse, flea, bug, chinch, mud, mire, quagmire, alluvium, silt, sludge, slime, slush, slosh, sposh, spawn, offal, gurry, lientery, garbage, carrion, excreta, slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria, faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap, shit, sewage, sewerage, muck, coprolite, guano, manure, compost, dunghill, colluvies, mixen, midden, bog, laystall, sink, privy, jakes, toilet, john, head, cess, cesspool, sump, sough, cloaca, latrines, drain, sewer, common sewer, Cloacina, dust hole, sty, pigsty, lair, den, Augean stable, sink of corruption, slum, rookery, dirty, filthy, grimy, unclean, impure, soiled, not to be handled with kid gloves, dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky, thick, turbid, dreggy, slimy, mussy, slovenly, untidy, messy, uncleanly, unkempt, sluttish, dowdy, draggle-tailed, uncombed, unscoured, unswept, unwiped, unwashed, unstrained, unpurified, squalid, lutose, slammocky, slummocky, sozzly, nasty, coarse, foul, offensive, abominable, beastly, reeky, reechy, fetid, decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral, lentiginous, touched, fusty, effete, reasty, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty, putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied, saprogenic, saprogenous, purulent, carious, peccant, fecal, feculent, stercoraceous, excrementitious, scurfy, scurvy, impetiginous, gory, bloody, rotting, rotten as a pear, rotten as cheese, crapulous, gross, fimetarious, fimicolous, they that touch pitch will be defiled.Painfulness
N painfulness, trouble, care, trial, affliction, infliction, blow, stroke, burden, load, curse, bitter pill, bitter draught, waters of bitterness, annoyance, grievance, nuisance, vexation, mortification, sickener, bore, bother, pother, hot water, sea of troubles, hornet's nest, plague, pest, cancer, ulcer, sting, thorn, canker, scorpion, dagger, scourge, carking care, canker worm of care, mishap, misfortune, desagrement, esclandre, rub, source of irritation, source of annoyance, wound, open sore, sore subject, skeleton in the closet, thorn in the flesh, thorn in one's side, where the shoe pinches, gall and wormwood, sorry sight, heavy news, provocation, affront, head and front of one's offending, infestation, molestation, malignity, causing pain, hurting, hurtful, painful, dolorific, dolorous, unpleasant, unpleasing, displeasing, disagreeable, unpalatable, bitter, distasteful, uninviting, unwelcome, undesirable, undesired, obnoxious, unacceptable, unpopular, thankless, unsatisfactory, untoward, unlucky, uncomfortable, distressing, afflicting, afflictive, joyless, cheerless, comfortless, dismal, disheartening, depressing, depressive, dreary, melancholy, grievous, piteous, woeful, rueful, mournful, deplorable, pitiable, lamentable, sad, affecting, touching, pathetic, irritating, provoking, stinging, annoying, aggravating, mortifying, galling, unaccommodating, invidious, vexatious, troublesome, tiresome, irksome, wearisome, plaguing, plaguy, awkward, importunate, teasing, pestering, bothering, harassing, worrying, tormenting, carking, intolerable, insufferable, insupportable, unbearable, unendurable, past bearing, not to be borne, not to be endured, more than flesh and blood can bear, enough to drive one mad, enough to provoke a saint, enough to make a parson swear, enough to gag a maggot, shocking, terrific, grim, appalling, crushing, dreadful, fearful, frightful, thrilling, tremendous, dire, heart-breaking, heart-rending, heart-wounding, heart-corroding, heart-sickening, harrowing, rending, odious, hateful, execrable, repulsive, repellent, abhorrent, horrid, horrible, horrific, horrifying, offensive, nauseous, nauseating, disgusting, sickening, revolting, nasty, loathsome, loathful, fulsome, vile, hideous, sharp, acute, sore, severe, grave, hard, harsh, cruel, biting, caustic, cutting, corroding, consuming, racking, excruciating, searching, grinding, grating, agonizing, envenomed, catheretic, pyrotic, ruinous, disastrous, calamitous, tragical, desolating, withering, burdensome, onerous, oppressive, cumbrous, cumbersome, painfully, with pain, deuced, Int, hinc illae lachrymae!, surgit amari aliquid, the place being too hot to hold one, the iron entering into the soul, he jests at scars that never felt a wound, I must be cruel only to be kind, what deep wounds ever closed without a scar?.Unsavoriness
N unsavoriness, amaritude, acrimony, acridity (bitterness), roughness, acerbity, austerity, gall and wormwood, rue, quassia, aloes, marah, sickener, unsavory, unpalatable, unsweetened, unsweet, ill-flavored, bitter, bitter as gall, acrid, acrimonious, rough, offensive, repulsive, nasty, sickening, nauseous, loathsome, fulsome, unpleasant.For further exploring for "nasty" in Webster Dictionary Online