nitty
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈnɪtiː/
note: older
ipa: /ˈnɪtɪ/
ipa: /ˈnɪti/
ipa: /-ɾi/
rhymes: -ɪti
Forms: form: nittier
form: more nitty
form: nittiest
form: most nitty
form: nittie
Etymology: From nit + -y. The “foolish, inane” adjective sense is from nit (“fool, nitwit”), possibly under the influence of nutty (“crazy, mad”).
The origin of the noun sense (“dope fiend, druggie”) is unknown, but could refer to a person who is under the influence of drugs to the extent that he or she is careless about personal hygiene and unkempt. Compare the verb nit (“to be a nitty”).
Senses: examples: text: About mid-night do I walke, and for the trickes I play they call me Pach. When I find a slut asleepe, I smuch her face if it be cleane; but if it be durty, I wash it in the next pisse-pot that I can finde: the balls I use to wash such sluts withal is a sows pancake or a pilgrimes salve. Those that I find with their heads nitty and scabby, for want of combing, I am their barbers, and cut their hayre as close as an apes tayle; or else clap so much pitch on it, that they must cut it off themselves to their great shame.
ref: a. 1588, “The Trickes of the Fayry Called Pach”, in Robin Good-Fellovv, His Mad Prankes, and Merry Iests: […], London: Printed [by Miles Flesher?] for F[rancis] Groue […], published 1628, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages. […], volume II, London: Printed for the Percy Society, […], 1840, →OCLC, page 41:
text: Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]
ref: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:
text: Rich people haue the world at will, / Trades fade, but Lawiers flourish still, / Iacke would be married unto Gyll; / but care will kill a Cat. / Are you there, Sirrah, with your beares? / A Barbers shop with the nittie haires, / Doll, Phillis hath lost both her eares / for coozning.
ref: c. 1620, An Excellent New Medley: To the Tune of the Spanish Pauin, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC; republished as Charles Hindley, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads, volume I, London: Reeves and Turner, […], 1873, →OCLC, page 79:
text: Sure thy father was ſome botcher, and thy hungry tongue bit off theſe ſhreds of complaints, to patch up the elbows of thy nitty eloquence.
ref: 1622, Phillip Messenger [i.e., Philip Massinger]; Thomas Deker [i.e., Thomas Dekker], The Virgin Martir: A Tragedie. […], London: Printed by B[ernard] A[lsop] for Thomas Jones, →OCLC; republished in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker […] in Four Volumes, volume IV, London: John Pearson […], 1873, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 52:
text: Next night, therefore, these nittie haxters intend with strong hand to breake his glass-window's, or at dead-time of night to pull downe his signe: and so ends their faire quarrel.
ref: 1631, [Richard Brathwait], “A Ruffian”, in Whimzies: Or, a Nevv Cast of Characters, London: Imprinted by F[elix] K[ingston] and are to be sold by Ambrose Rithirdon […], →OCLC; republished as James O[rchard] Halliwell, editor, The Whimzies; or A New Cast of Characters: From the Original Edition, Published in 1631, London: Printed by Thomas Richards, […], 1859, →OCLC, pages 83–84:
text: It is a very difficult thing to make a good yarn of nitty [cotton] stock. The nits will stick to the cotton to quite an extent anyway, in spite of all the efforts made to prevent it. A few years ago we had some very nitty stock and we got the best results by running the beaters so as to give about 40 blows per inch of stock delivered on our plain two bladed beaters.
ref: 1907 November, J. F. M., “Questions and Answers [Setting Cotton Cards]”, in Textile World Record: Combining The Textile World and Textile Record, volume 33 (New Series), number 2, Boston, Mass.: Lord & Nagle Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122:
text: Super-lice are bad news for most of us, but not for nit clinics, which are fast expanding. […] Then it is time for phase two, which involves a heat treatment, blasting hot air at my skull to dehydrate the eggs and eradicate the remaining offenders. This machine, rather like a high-tech salon hairdryer, is at times slightly scalding but not more painful than using a pair of hair straighteners. Finally, any nitty survivors are meticulously combed out, strand by strand.
ref: 2017 December 17, Susannah Constantine, “Susannah Constantine’s unusual nit infestation gets treated by head vacuum”, in The New Zealand Herald, Auckland, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2017:
synonyms: lousy
glosses: Full of nits.
examples: text: Stephen Colbert went overtime to get into the “nitty crazy” of President Donald Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, noting that, he was shaken to his core, but “at 54, there’s not a lot of core left.”
ref: 2018 July 17, Melissa Lockyer, “Putin’s Press Conference with Trump Shook Stephen Colbert to His Core”, in Time, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2018:
synonyms: word: dumb
word: idiotic
word: addlebrained
word: addlepated
word: airheaded
word: bee-brained
word: beef-witted
word: beefheaded
word: beetle-headed
word: birdbrained
word: blockheaded
word: Boeotian
word: boneheaded
word: boofheaded
word: brainless
word: bubbleheaded
word: buffle-headed
word: bullet-headed
word: cerebrally challenged
word: childish
word: chowderheaded
word: chuckleheaded
word: crackbrained
word: cretinous
word: dense
word: dented
word: dim-bulb
word: dim-headed
word: dim-witted
word: dim
word: doltish
word: dopey
word: dozy
word: drowsy
word: dull-headed
word: dull-minded
word: dull-witted
word: dull
word: dumber than a box of rocks
word: dumb
word: dunderheaded
word: empty-headed
word: fatheaded
word: feeble-minded
word: flea-brained
word: foolish
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: half-brained
word: half-witted
word: hammer-headed
word: idiotic
word: imbecilic
word: inane
word: insipid
word: intellectually challenged
word: knuckleheaded
word: lamebrained
word: lowbrow
word: lumpish
word: lunkheaded
word: mentally challenged
word: mentally retarded
word: mindless
word: monosynaptic
word: moronic
word: muttonheaded
word: nitwitted
word: numbskulled
word: oafish
word: obtuse
word: peabrained
word: pratty
word: pudding-headed
word: puerile
word: purblind
word: quarter-witted
word: retarded
word: rockheaded
word: sharp as a bowling ball
word: sheep-headed
word: simple
word: slow-witted
word: slow
word: smooth-brained
word: stolid
word: stupid
word: thick-skulled
word: thickheaded
word: thickwitted
word: thick
word: unapprehensive
word: unclever
word: unintelligent
word: unsmart
word: vacant
word: vacuous
word: witless
word: wooden-headed
word: wool-headed
word: woolly-headed
word: woolly-minded
word: dumb as a bag of hammers
word: dumb as a box of rocks
word: dumb as a doorknob
word: dumb as an ox
word: dumb as a post
word: dumb as a sack of hammers
word: dumb as dirt
word: dumber than a rock
word: not the sharpest crayon in the box
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: not the sharpest tool in the shed
word: thick as a brick
word: thick as a plank
word: thick as champ
word: thick as mince
word: thick as two short planks
word: thick as a whale omelette
word: ass-brained
word: fuckwitted
word: shit-for-brains
word: thick as pig shit
word: asinine
word: balmy
word: barmy
word: bedaft
word: loony
word: daft
word: derpy
word: dim-headed
word: dim-witted
word: dopey
word: dull-headed
word: dull-witted
word: dumb
word: duncical
word: fatuous
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: gauvison
word: goofy
word: idiotic
word: idle
word: insipient
word: mookish
word: naive
word: silly
word: simple
word: slight
word: slow-witted
word: softheaded
word: soft in the head
word: sottish
word: stupid
word: thick
raw_tags: not of action
word: unsage
word: unwise
word: wool-headed
word: woolly-headed
word: woolly-minded
word: crackpot
word: dense
glosses: Foolish, inane.
Derived terms: nittily
nittiness