# naughty
## English
### Etymology

From late Middle English noughti, naughty (“evil, immoral, wicked”), from nought (“evil, immoral”) + -ī̆ (suffix forming adjectives). Analysable as naught +‎ -y.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈnɔːti/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈnɔti/, [ˈnɔɾi]
* (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈnɑti/, [ˈnɑɾi]
** Audio (US, cot–caught merger):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔːti
* Hyphenation: naugh‧ty
* Homophones: knotty (cot–caught merger); noddy (cot–caught merger, flapping)

### Adjective

naughty (comparative naughtier, superlative naughtiest)
* Mischievous; tending to misbehave or act badly (especially of a child). [from 17th c.]
    Some naughty boys at school hid the teacher's lesson notes.
* Sexually provocative; now in weakened sense, risqué, cheeky. [from 19th c.]
    I bought some naughty lingerie for my honeymoon.
    If I see you send another naughty email to your friends, you will be forbidden from using the computer!
* (now rare, archaic) Evil, wicked, morally reprehensible. [from 15th c.]
** 1589, John Bucke, Instructions for the Use of the Beades:my proneſſe to ſinne, and naughty appetites and desires, woulde drawe me headlong to the pitte of hell
** c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:[…] How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
** 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomack differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unappliable to occasions of evill.
* (obsolete) Bad, worthless, substandard. [16th–19th c.]
** 1542, Andrew Boorde, The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge:In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 24:2:One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

#### Alternative forms

* noughty (archaic or obsolete)

#### Synonyms

* (immoral, sexually provocative): dirty
* (mischievous): mischievous

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “immoral; cheeky”): nice

#### Derived terms

* naughtily
* naughtiness
* naughty bit
* naughty list
* naughty-pack
* naughty parts
* naughty step
* naughty word

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

naughty (third-person singular simple present naughties, present participle naughtying, simple past and past participle naughtied)
* To perform sexual acts upon.

### References

* ↑ “noughtī, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “nought, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “-ī̆, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.