Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig./mainly US) a term of general approval, pleasant, satisfactory, attractive.

1633		Rowley Match at Midnight IV i: A neate man, a proper man, a welfavoured man, a handsome man.
c.1637		R. Brome Damoiselle III ii: Truly but one that’s a Gamester amongst us at the ducking pond; a Cobler, but the neatest Fellow at Poetry.
1663		J. Wilson Cheats IV ii: You are pretty neat in your house; somewhat nimble, witty, subtile, and a good bed-fellow!
1709		Cibber Rival Fools I i: I [...] and tho’ I say it, was one of the neatest Operators about Town.
1737		H. Carey Dragon of Wantley I iii: My Sweetest, / My Featest, / Compleatest, / And Neatest.
1763		G.A. Stevens in Adventures of a Speculist (1788) II 44: A tumbler fill, a brusher! I can bear it [...] ’tis neat good claret.
1810		‘Paddy Carey’ in A Garland of New Songs (3) 2: O sweet Paddy! beautiful Paddy! / Nate little, tight little Paddy Carey.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 28: ‘My wife, Bridget Coole, she is a tight, neat, body’.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 246: You also know a Green-horn and an extravagant fellow, to whom you sell it for twice its value, and that is the neat thing.
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers Works III (1898) 239: If it was summer, he spanked round into the Park, and drove one of the neatest turnouts there.
1846–48		Thackeray Book of Snobs (1889) 175: Do you call that neat, Wiggle?
1863		‘The Old Bog-Hole’ Donnybrook-Fair Comic Songster 15: My Judy she’s as fair as the flowers on the lea – / She’s nate and complate from the neck to the knee.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 53: She’s a neat little bit o’ muslin, ain’t she now?
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 15 Dec. 163: Kinder neat that, eh, sonny?
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 65: Then, when he’s got a little age an’ wisdom an’ nerve he turns his first neat one.
1927		Lillian Glinn ‘Brownskin Blues’ 🎵 A yellow man’s sweet, a black man’s neat.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 622: He wished a neat trick, like his sister Fran, would come by.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 276: This is neat, this is gonna take the cake.
1953		Kramer & Karr Teen-Age Gangs 158: Couldn’t be neater, couldn’t be sweeter.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 52: We think coke and hamburgers are really neat.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 14: I’m a neat dresser on game days.
1983		A-Team Storybook 24: ‘Pretty neat stunt,’ said a voice from the ground.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 156: Turn down sales for the sake of a neat idea.
2002		J. Franzen Corrections 259: Wouldn’t it be neat to put some M-80s on [...] a model railroad bridge?

2. in ironic use, rare, fine, delightful.

1829		D. Jerrold Black-Ey’d Susan II ii: Ar’n’t you a neat gorgon of an uncle now, to cut the painter of a pretty pinnace like this, and send her drifting down the tide of poverty, without ballast, provisions, or compass?
1836		‘Moll Blowse of Saffron Hill’ in Flash Casket 98: A deal the neatest goer there, / Vos Moll Blowse of Saffron Hill.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 82: They do up such things amazing neat.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 9/3: You write: ‘I should like to know whether they are too bad to be criticised, as in that case I should send them to the Evening News for publication.’ That’s neater than your verses….