neat
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈniːt/
rhymes: -iːt
homophone: NEET
Forms: form: neater
form: neatest
Etymology: From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”). Compare also nait.
Senses: examples: text: My room is neat because I tidied it this morning.  She has very neat hair.
text: Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091:
text: A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,[…].
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.
examples: text: I like my whisky neat.
text: 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 464-465,
A cup of neate wine of Orleance,
That never came neer the brewers of England.
text: From this same Head, this Fountain-head divine, / For different Palates springs a different Wine! / In which no Tricks, to strengthen, or to thin ’em— / Neat as imported—no French Brandy in em’—
ref: 1756, David Garrick, Catharine and Petruchio, London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, Prologue:
text: 1932, Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pastime, New York: Cornerstone Library, 1965,
At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used ‘neat.’
glosses: Free from contaminants; unadulterated, undiluted. Particularly of liquor and cocktails; see usage below.
examples: text: The Arbuzov reaction is performed by adding the bromide to the phosphite, neat.  The molecular beam was neat acetylene.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Conditions with a liquid reagent or gas performed with no standard solvent or cosolvent.
examples: text: Why without telling the least title of Falshood, within the space of the last Week’s Play, the Gains of Count Cog, really amounted to no less than Twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling neat Money.
ref: 1720, William Bond, chapter 4, in The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, London: E. Curll, pages 55–56:
text: Dr. Swift […] says, in his short view of the state of Ireland, that the whole cash of that kingdom amounted to 500,000 l. that out of this they remitted every year a neat million to England, and had scarce any other source to compensate themselves from […]
ref: 1752, David Hume, Political Discourses, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson, Discourse 5, page 81:
text: It may be said, that the increase of the tax is an uncompensated reduction of the neat income of the landlord […]
ref: 1793, John Brand, The Alteration of the Constitution of the House of Commons, and the Inequality of the Land-Tax, Considered Jointly, London: J. Evans, Section III, p. 52:
glosses: With all deductions or allowances made; net.
examples: text: The front room was neat and carefully arranged for the guests.
glosses: Having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim, tidy, tasteful.
examples: text: Having the two protagonists meet in the last act was a particularly neat touch.
glosses: Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.
examples: text: Courts should not reduce this case to a neat set of legal rules.
glosses: Facile; missing complexity or details in the favor of convenience or simplicity.
examples: text: Hey, neat convertible, man.
text: "You can tell that Rory has had this type of talent in him for some time now, and to see him putting it together is pretty neat to see."
ref: 2011 June 20, Phil Mickelson (being quoted), “US Open: Jack Nicklaus tips Rory McIlroy for greatness”, in BBC News:
glosses: Good, excellent, desirable; interesting; cool.
examples: text: What is the neat weight of 4 hogsheads of tobacco, each weighing 10cwt. 3qrs. 10lb. gross; — tare 100lb. per hdd.?
ref: 1824, Stephen Pike, The Teachers' Assistant: Or a System of Practical Arithmetic, page 97:
glosses: Obsolete form of net (“remaining after expenses or deductions”).
Coordinate terms: sense: undiluted liquor or cocktail
word: straight up
sense: undiluted liquor or cocktail
word: up
sense: undiluted liquor or cocktail
word: straight
Derived terms: in neat
neat and tidy
neat as a button
neat as a new pin
neat as a pin
neat as ninepence
neaten
neat freak
neat-freakery
neat-handed
neat-house
neatify
neat line
neatly
neatness
neatnik
neato
neatresse
neat weight
neatwork
overneat
unneat