Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. smart, spruce, attractive.

c.1785		‘The Dog & Duck Rig’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 79: Till she meets with a spoony that’s nutty.
1823		Byron Don Juan canto XI line 151: Who on a lark, with black-eyed Sal (his blowing) So prime, so swell, so nutty, and so knowing.
1833		‘The Beak & Trap to Roost are Gone’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 49: No face but our own, nor nutty mot, / To stand an outer of three.
1845		in Martin & Aytoun Bon Gaultier Ballads The Nutty Blowen [title].
1842		Boston Satirist (MA) 21 Oct. n.p.: Joan was beauty’s plummiest daughter, / Colin youth’s most nutty son.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 253: Barcelona (which nutty sea-port I have never visited).
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 9/2: The ‘knuck’ Joe Belton and his ‘nuttiest’ lady, Fanny Archer.
1881		Newcastle Courant 9 Sept. 6/5: He called her the ‘nuttiest blowen on the big orange’.
c.1900		[perf. Vesta Tilley] I’m Going to Be a Nut 🎵 The fittings will be gorgeous - take your hair right out of curl / And one of them will be a gem, the real nut’s ‘nutty’ girl.
1956		Mad mag. Spring 40: A real nutty suit with lots of swell sparly stuff and junk jewelry sewed on it.

2. piquant, spicy.

1888		‘’Arry on Marriage’ Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Life goes on nutty and nice.
1894		G.A. Sala London up to Date 329: The case, he incidentally adds, promises to be a nutty one.