nasty adj.
1. (orig. US) first-class, exciting, particularly enjoyable or admirable.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Knickerbocker (N.Y.) III 37: [note] ‘Sling a nasty foot,’ means to dance exceedingly well. | |
 | Border Watch (Mt Gambier, SA) 31 Oct. 3/2: THE LATEST SLANG CREATION IN NEW YORK [...] A clever writer is said to ‘sling a nasty pen’. | |
| Pitching 68: Hoblitzell is a nasty hitter. | |
| Big Town 91: The meals is included in the rates, and they certainly set a nasty table. | |
| Classics in Sl. 56: K.O. Macbeth’s wife tunes in on WXYZ, begins shakin’ a nasty shoulder and fin’ly vamps the champ into stayin’ over the night at the challenger’s dump. [Ibid.] 69: Romeo is out on the floor shakin’ a nasty hoof with one of the janes. | |
| Jazz Lex. xviii: The jazzman’s [...] deliberate and significant reversal of the conventional connotations of terms such as mean, dirty, and nasty (all current c. 1900). | |
| Brother Ray 161: Show me a guy who can’t play the blues and I’m through with him before he can get started. If you can’t get nasty and grovel in the gutter, something’s missing. | |
| Campus Sl. Oct. 5: nasty – good: What a nasty drink! | |
| Corner (1998) 156: Come right here with that nasty shit. | |
| Campus Sl. Spring. | |
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011. |
2. (orig. US) attractive, sexy; often in negative sense, i.e. promiscuous, amoral.
| Knickerbocker (N.Y.) III 37: ‘She is a nasty-looking gal,’ implies she is a splendid woman . | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Family Connections 39: Harry, I must suck your nasty arse before I go any further. | |
| ‘Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 41: Oh Mickey, I think you’re a nasty mans —. | |
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 174: She used to say I always brought nasty girls to the house. | |
| ‘Brown Shoes don’t Make It’ 🎵 She’s nasty, she’s nasty, she digs it in bed. | |
| ‘Cusswords’ 🎵 Nasty bitches, around the world / I wrote this rhyme for you. | |
| Pimp’s Rap 55: Candy was nice and nasty. She enabled me to experience my most intimate sexual desires. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 150: She be nasty, but that bitch got ass! | |
| OG Dad 70: Complete strangers [...] address you as ‘Daddy’. But not in a nasty Ride me, Daddy, right [sic] me right out of town! way. |
3. (orig. US) aggressive, hostile, bad-tempered.
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 22/2: To our wives we’ve been bound in thraldom, / Like that which binds each Russian serf; / If we’ve ever grown ‘nasty’ and mauled ’em, / And ‘landed ’em out by the scruf’. | |
| Tramp and Other Stories 49: He’s real nasty when he’s drunk. If I had turned him down now he’d have gone drinking and getting nasty and then we’d have had some trouble. | |
| Really the Blues 14: He gets ugly, gets into a fighting mood and comes out nasty. | |
| Corner Boy 80: Tree and Cage got real nasty. | |
| Carlito’s Way 16: I wasn’t nasty or no troublemaker. | |
| Life and Times of Little Richard 133: He’d get nasty and shout at me. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 65: He gave me the gaze like I was a Scouser or carried a dangerous disease. Slow and nasty. | |
| Boy from County Hell 139: [A] rusty old jukebox playing a nasty Johnny Rebel tune. | |
| Joey Piss Pot 58: ‘[H]e doesn’t have much respect for you. Talks some nasty shit about you’. |
4. with ref. to speech or writing, sexually suggestive (whether explicitly or not); raw, earthy.
| (con. 1910s) Hoods (1953) 31: We smoked, whistled, and made nasty remarks to the girls passing by. | |
| Gay Detective (2003) 39: Parsons was arrested for writing a nasty invitation on the walls of the men’s room. | |
| Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 93: The double-entendre nasty songs. | |
| (con. 1930s) The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 4: Here they were under the streetlight [...] cutting the fool and talking that nasty talk. Nasty talk! It was a wonder God didn’t send down a thunderbolt and clean up the air. | |
| Clit Notes 122: Nasty talk about my mother. But it didn’t hurt me none. Because it was all true. Every stinky last word of it, true. | |
| (con. 1900s) Buddy Bolden 22: The way he would sing that nasty talk would make the skin on your flesh twitter. Many of the women would hold their ears and rush away from the band. | |
| Blacktop Wasteland 82: ‘Don’t tell me you’re falling for her. She can’t be that good at eating pussy.’ ‘You so damn nasty’. |
5. dirty.
| ‘The Checker Board’ in Lover Man 6: Git up and wash your hands, Thomas, ‘fore you salt God’s food with your nasty fingers. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Official Dancehall Dict. 36: Nahsi dirty; filthy: N. yuh too nahsi/you’re too dirty. | |
| Handbook for Boys 178: When they had chewed all the flavor out of the tobacco or snuff, they’d spit it out.’ ‘And nobody told them that was nasty?’. | |
| Riker’s 6: There was this little crackhead lady falling asleep on my shoulder [...] She was nasty. |
6. (orig. US) difficult.
| Street Talk 2 32: The professor just gave us some nasty work to do. |
In compounds
1. of a person, unpleasant.
| Pugilist at Rest 108: I knew that either Clendon would become so pissed that he would leave that nasty-ass bitch or he would weasel under. | |
| Guardian Rev. 10 Mar. 27: Lotsa nasty-ass motherfuckers and bad, ig’nint, troublesome niggaz in this neighbourhood. | |
| (con. 1998–2000) You Got Nothing Coming 33: That’s one nasty-ass white boy. |
2. of a place, thing or animal, dirty, disgusting.
| My Main Mother 116: That nasty-assed dog has been farting here all night. | |
| in Sex Work (1988) 56: She hated the rain. [...] This nasty ass, cold greyness pouring down. | |
| Chicken (2003) 60: I sure as hell don’t want her to see my nasty-ass hovel. |
(US black) of a female, promiscuous.
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 139: I just can’t understand why you like those old nasty-behind girls who don’t wear no drawers. |
(US, orig. milit.) an unpleasant note or letter or a communication that brings bad news.
| Air War – Vietnam 6: If he has to send a ‘nastygram’—a curt reprimand—to anybody, on deck or aloft, he doesn’t hesitate. | |
| Second in Command 75: Butcher had a habit of writing ‘nastygrams,’ reminders of incidents that he wanted to recall when he made his next fitness reports [HDAS]. | |
| Med 155: They had to be filled out by the book or you got a nastygram from the computer. |
1. the member of the garrotting team who actually does the choking.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
2. (UK Und.) a thief’s assistant.
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 419: He was forced to employ an assistant – suggestively termed a ‘nasty-man’ – whom he hired by the job to do the heavier work. |
3. (US black) a sexual pervert.
| Howard Street 85: He was a ‘nasty man’ who liked to have his women urinate in his face prior to lovemaking. |
(W.I.) foul-mouthed, given to using obscene language.
| Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
(W.I.) ill-mannered, boorish.
| Official Dancehall Dict. 36: Nahsi-naygah relating to rudeness or coarseness in behaviour: u. mek de nahsi-naygah bwoy gwaan. |
In phrases
to in a negative, aggressive manner.
| Seven Demons 311: So someone will make nasty and get smacked down. |
(W.I.) to make a mess of, to dirty.
| Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 78: Don’ nasty up your clothes, child. |