Adjective

(en adjective)

Attractive and possessing charm.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=5 citation , passage=‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’}}

(of the weather) Pleasant; clear.

Well executed.

(as a pro-sentence ) How beautiful that is!

(referring to an athlete catching a ball)

(as a pro-sentence; ironic ) How unfortunate that is!

Adjective

(er)

Cunning; clever, skilful.

* 1877 , George Hesekiel and Bayard Taylor, Bismarck his Authentic Biography , page 380:

In the end, however, it was a very pretty shot, right across the chasm; killed first fire, and the brute fell headlong into the brook [...].

Pleasant in sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.}}

* 2010 , Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian , 4 Feb 2010:

To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday.

Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.

* 2010 , Lia Leendertz, The Guardian , 13 Feb 2010:

'Petit Posy' brassicas [...] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.

* 1962 , "New Life for the Liberals", Time , 28 Sep 1962:

Damned by the Socialists as "traitors to the working class," its leaders were decried by Tories as "faceless peddlers of politics with a pretty little trinket for every taste."

(dated) Moderately large; considerable.

*, I.2.4.vii:

they flung all the goods in the house out at the windows into the street, or into the sea, as they supposed; thus they continued mad a pretty season […].

*

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}

* 2004 , "Because They're Worth it", Time , 26 Jan 04:

"What did you do to your hair?" The answer could be worth a pretty penny for L'Oreal.

(dated) Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).

* 1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma , Boston 1867, page 75:

Some people are surprised, I believe, that that the eldest was not [named after his father], but Isabella would have him named Henry, which I thought very pretty of her.

* 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :

‘This new fashion of introducing the candidate's children into an election contest is a pretty one,’ said Mrs. Panstreppon; ‘it takes away something from the acerbity of party warfare, and it makes an interesting experience for the children to look back on in after years.’

* 1926 , (Ernest Hemingway), , page 251:

"Oh, Jake." Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together." Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. "Yes", I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

(ironic) Awkward, unpleasant.

* 1931 , "Done to a Turn", Time , 26 Jan 1931:

His sadistic self-torturings finally landed him in a pretty mess: still completely married, practically sure he was in love with Tillie, he made dishonorable proposals of marriage to two other women.