Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. unpleasant, distasteful.

1570		Grafton Abridged Chronicles of England 194: Ther was yet another mad & beastly Bull in Latin set vp in the night season, which most vily & maliciously touched the honour [...] of our most deere & vertuous Lady Elizabeth.
1586		G. Whetstone Mirrour for Magestrates of Citties (2nd edn) B4: The Gentlemen had made this exchange with vile persons: they were attyred with the Gentlemens brauerie, and the Gentlemen disgraced with their beastly manners.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching Ch. 13: These drunken Tinkers, called also Prigs, be beastly people.
1599		Dekker Old Fortunatus II ii: shad.: But what shall we learne by trauaile? andel.: Fashions. shad.: That’s a beastly disease.
1610		Beaumont & Fletcher Scornful Lady IV i: I’ll see him hang’d first: he’s a beastly fellow.
1652		Jonson, Fletcher & Middleton Widdow I ii: Pox on thee thou art the beastliest crossest Baggage that ever man met withall.
1681		S. Colvil Whiggs Supplication Pt II 37: Prefiguring the beastly rage Of Church-rule in this latter age.
1710		C. Shadwell Fair Quaker of Deal I i: wor.: Oh Beastly! We at Sea always Smoak when we Drink, and that would spoil all the gay furniture. miz.: Oh wretched! [...] rov.: What is your conversation? miz.: We imitates the ladies as near as we can.
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford II i: For ’tis an intolerable Slavery to walk, like an Excise-man, from one end of this Beastly Town to the other.
1742		Fielding Joseph Andrews (1954) I 51: Don’t shock my ears with your beastly language.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 238: A pye made of dormice and syrup of poppies; Christ in heaven! what beastly fellows these Romans were!
1794		Stamford Mercury 2 May 4/1: I swear by G—d ’tis beastly / Thus (like an Essex calf) to treat poor Priestly.
1807		Merry Tricks of Leper the Taylor 13: Oh, hoch, we are a parcel of poor beastly bodies, and we’re as beastly guided.
1820		Pleasant Hist. of Poor Robin 11: You beastly quean (quoth he) must you spit in my face.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 84–5: A kind of cant phraseology is current from one end of the Metropolis to the other. Indeed, even in the time of Lord Chesterfield, he complained of it. In some females of the highest rank, it is as strongly marked, as in dingy draggled-tailed sall, who is compelled to dispose of a few sprats to turn an honest penny: and while the latter in smacking her lips, talks of her prime jackey, and out-and-out concern, and a bit of good truth, &c. the former, in her dislikes, tossing her head, observes, it was shocking, quite a bore, beastly, stuff, &c.
1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 362: The claret was beastly – not fit for a gentleman to drink!
1860		Melbourne Punch 9 Aug. 6/2: ‘Slangiana’ [...] Come, Bella, do, ‘tis beastly rot / Let’s hook it — Cremorne go to blazes.
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 60: If it had been one of Colt’s ’stead of your beastly British make.
1874		Cultivator and Country Gentleman (US) 10 Dec. 799/1: Everything that annoys us is ‘infernal’ or ‘beastly’.
1887		‘’Arry on Law & Order’ Punch 26 Nov. 249/1: Beastly shame, and no error, my pippin! Me cop it! It’s too jolly rum.
1890		H. Fludyer Letters 46: Forker plade me a beestly trick the other day.
1891		H.B. Marriott-Watson Web of the Spider 320: ‘Friend,’ he says, as far as I could make out his beastly lingo, ‘we’re in a tight hole.’.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 178: I’ve been minding my p’s and q’s all the time through this beastly dinner.
1908		N.Z. Truth 22 Feb. 6/2: There were rows and bad language and what-not, and everything in the garden was beastly.
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 113: Confound it! [...] I’ve got some of the beastly stuff on my coat sleeve.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Night Watches’ Naval Occasions 177: Come on, Jimmy, it’s a lovely night – much more healthy on the bridge than fugging in your beastly hammock.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 8: It’s a beastly thing and nothing else.
1924		E. Ferber ‘Our Very Best People’ One Basket (1947) 254: Beastly idea [...] having to get off a train for your meals, like that. And those cow towns!
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 70: The money they’ve got back for me from Hayn is no more than I lost in cash at his beastly club.
1941		B. Miller Farewell Leicester Square (2000) 263: Beastly crossing, that’s all: I’ll be all right.
1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 19: Don’t move, you beastly squirt.
1957		G. Metalious Peyton Place (1959) 231: I was perfectly beastly to Nellie Cross.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 242: I was beastly to Mr Woodgate.
1961		R.M. Dashwood Provincial Daughter (2002) 25: I now wish I had not mentioned the beastly goats at all.

2. (US black) excellent, wonderful, very enjoyable [on bad = good model].

1953

L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: Well let’s keep the party rolling cool, groovy and most beastly.