nice
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
See also Nice
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English nice, nyce, nys < Old French nice, niche, nisce (“‘simple, foolish, ignorant’”) < Latin nescious (“‘ignorant, not knowing’”); cf. nescire (“‘to know not, be ignorant of’”) < ne (“‘not’”) + scire (“‘to know’”).
Original usage: "A nice distinction", meaning a distinction so subtle it would only be made by the ignorant. Similar in meaning to the phrase "a moot point". The illogical association of "nice" with good feelings probably arose from the loss of the original meaning and a false interpretation of the word's usage.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
nice (comparative nicer, superlative nicest)
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Positive |
- Of a thing or person or event, pleasant, pretty.
- What a nice dress!
- Admirable, enviable.
- Innocent; gentle; distinguished by perceived class or virtue.
- What is a nice person like you doing in a place like this?
- Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle.
- a nice distinction
- Neat; elegantly succinct.
- Fermat believed he had a nice proof of his theorem.
- Bordering on failure or disaster; succeeding by the narrowest of margins.
- "It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life" -- The Duke of Wellington shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, 1815.
- (colloquial) With "and", excellent, pleasantly.
- The soup is nice and hot.
[edit] Quotations
- 1930, H.M. Walker, The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case
- Here's another nice mess you've gotten us into.
[edit] Usage notes
Sometimes used sarcastically to mean the opposite or to connote excess.
[edit] Synonyms
- (easy to like: person): charming, delightful, lovely, pleasant, sweet
- (easy to like: thing): charming, delightful, lovely, pleasant
- (having a pleasant taste or aroma): appetising/appetizing, delicious, moreish (informal), scrummy (slang), scrumptious (slang), tasty
- (subtle): fine, subtle
[edit] Antonyms
- (easy to like: person): horrible, horrid, nasty
- (easy to like: thing): horrible, horrid, nasty
- (having a pleasant taste or aroma): awful, disgusting, foul, horrible, horrid, nasty, nauseating, putrid, rancid, rank, sickening, distasteful, gross, unsatisfactory
- (subtle):
[edit] Related terms
- nicely
- niceness
- nicety
- nice and + adjective
- nice and easy
[edit] Translations
easy to like
pleasant to look at
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having a pleasant taste or aroma
showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment
- 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.
[edit] Interjection
nice!
[edit] External links
- nice in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- nice in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- nice at OneLook® Dictionary Search