naughty

English

Etymology

From naught +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈnɔːti/
• (US) IPA: /ˈnɔti/, /ˈnɑti/
• Homophone: knotty (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

• Audio (US cot-caught merged)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːti

Adjective

naughty (comparative naughtier, superlative naughtiest)

1. (now rare, archaic) Evil, wicked, morally reprehensible. [from 15th c.]
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, First Folio, The Merchant of Venice:

     So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

   • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

     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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Udall:

     Such as be intemperant, that is, followers of their naughty appetites and lusts.

2. (obsolete) Bad, worthless, substandard. [16th-19th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote?) American King James Bible, 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.

3. 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.

4. Immoral, 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!

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the template {{sense|"gloss"}}, substituting a short version of the definition for "gloss".

• dirty
• mischievous

Antonyms

• (immoral; cheeky): nice

Derived terms

• naughtily
• naughtiness
• naughty bit

Translations

bad; tending to misbehave or act badly

• Arabic: شرير (ar) (shirriir), مؤذ (ar) (muu'dh)
• Catalan: trapella (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 頑皮 (cmn), 顽皮 (cmn) (wánpí), 淘氣 (cmn), 淘气 (cmn) (táoqì), 調皮 (cmn), 调皮 (cmn) (tiáopí)

• Danish: slem, uartig
• Dutch: stout (nl), ondeugend (nl)
• Esperanto: fia (eo)
• Finnish: tuhma (fi), ilkeä (fi)
• French: méchant (fr), malicieux (fr), malin (fr)
• Georgian: ცელქი (ka) (c'elk'i)
• German: unartig (de), ungehorsam (de), dreist (de), frech (de)
• Greek: άτακτος (el) (átaktos)
• Hungarian: rossz (hu), csintalan (hu)
• Indonesian: nakal (id)

• Italian: birichino (it)
• Japanese: わんぱくな (ja) (wanpaku-na), いたずらな (ja) (itazura-na), やんちゃな (ja) (yancha-na), 行儀が悪い (ja) (ぎょうぎがわるい, gyōgi-ga warui)
• Korean: 장난꾸러기의 (ko) (jangnankkureogiui)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ناڕه‌حه‌ت

• Latvian: nerātns (lv)
• Norwegian: uskikkelig
• Portuguese: travesso (pt), levado (pt)
• Russian: озорной (ru) (ozornój), непослушный (ru) (neposlúšnyj), шаловливый (ru) (šalovlívyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: crosta (gd)
• Spanish: travieso (es), maleducado (es)
• Swedish: stygg (sv)

risqué, sexually suggestive

• Danish: uartig (da)
• Dutch: ondeugend (nl), gewaagd (nl), gedurfd (nl), brutaal (nl), vuil (nl)
• Finnish: tuhma (fi)

• Norwegian: frekk, uforskamma
• Portuguese: safado
• Spanish: obsceno (es), picante (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: risqué