Pretty vs P - What's the difference?
pretty | p |
Cunning; clever, skilful.
* 1877 , George Hesekiel and Bayard Taylor, Bismarck his Authentic Biography , page 380:
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 * 2010 , Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian , 4 Feb 2010:
Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
* 2010 , Lia Leendertz, The Guardian , 13 Feb 2010:
* 1962 , "New Life for the Liberals", Time , 28 Sep 1962:
(dated) Moderately large; considerable.
*, I.2.4.vii:
*
, title= * 2004 , "Because They're Worth it", Time , 26 Jan 04:
(dated) Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).
* 1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma , Boston 1867, page 75:
* 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :
* 1926 , (Ernest Hemingway), , page 251:
(ironic) Awkward, unpleasant.
* 1931 , "Done to a Turn", Time , 26 Jan 1931:
Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.
* 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury , V:
* 1859 , (Charles Darwin), The Origin of Species , I:
* , chapter=1
, title= * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, page 539:
Something that is pretty.
* 1939 , Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf, ''
To make pretty; to beautify
* {{quote-book, 2007, Eric Knight, Lassie Come-Home
, passage=He sat on the hearth rug and began prettying the dog's coat.}}
The sixteenth letter of the .
Image:Latin P.png, Capital and lowercase versions of P , in normal and italic type
Image:Fraktur letter P.png, Uppercase and lowercase P in Fraktur
voiceless bilabial plosive
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As an adjective pretty
is cunning; clever, skilful.As an adverb pretty
is somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.As a noun pretty
is something that is pretty.As a verb pretty
is to make pretty; to beautify.As a letter p is
the sixteenth letter of the.As a symbol p is
symbol for phosphorus.pretty
English
Alternative forms
* pooty (nonstandard) * purdy (nonstandard) * (l) (dialectal) * (l), (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(er)- 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 [...].
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.}}
- 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.
- 'Petit Posy' brassicas [...] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.
- 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."
- 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 […].
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.}}
- "What did you do to your hair?" The answer could be worth a pretty penny for L'Oreal.
- 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.
- ‘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.’
- "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?"
- 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.
Quotations
* (ironic use: ) * 1995 , Les Standiford, Deal to die for , page 123: *: "[...] you can still see where the kid's face is swollen up from this talk: couple of black eyes, lip all busted up, nose over sideways," Driscoll shook his head again, "just a real pretty picture."Antonyms
* uglyDerived terms
* just another pretty face * not a pretty sight * not just a pretty face * PDQ * prettify * prettiness * pretty as a picture * pretty boy * pretty-faced wallaby * Pretty Good Privacy * pretty much * pretty pass * pretty penny * pretty please * Pretty Polly * pretty-pretty * pretty-spoken * purdy * sitting prettyAdverb
(-)- By the Sheets you have sent me to peruse, the Account you have given of her Birth and Parentage is pretty exact [...].
- It seems pretty clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation [...].
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
- The Revolutionary decade was a pretty challenging time for business.
Usage notes
* When particularly stressed, the adverb (term) serves almost to diminish the adjective or adverb that it modifies, by emphasizing that there are greater levels of intensity.Derived terms
* pretty much * pretty wellNoun
(pretties)- "We'll stop at the knife store a look at the sharp pretties .
- I'll get you, my pretty , and your little dog, too!
Verb
citation