neat

• IPA^(key): /ˈniːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt

From Middle English *nete, net, nette (> Modern net "after deductions, unadulterated"), from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desireable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette ("clean, clear, pure"; from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), from niteō (“I shine”)). Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”).

neat (comparative neater, superlative neatest)

1. Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

   My room is neat because I tidied it this morning.  She has very neat hair.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0091:

     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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎:

     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, […].

2. Free from contaminants; unadulterated, undiluted. Particularly of liquor and cocktails; see usage below.

   I like my whisky neat.

   • 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.

   • 1756, David Garrick, Catharine and Petruchio, London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, Prologue,

     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’—

   • 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.’

3. (chemistry) Conditions with a liquid reagent or gas performed with no standard solvent or cosolvent.

   The Arbuzov reaction is performed by adding the bromide to the phosphite, neat.  The molecular beam was neat acetylene.

4. (archaic) With all deductions or allowances made; net.
   • 1720, William Bond, The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, London: E. Curll, Chapter 4, pp. 55-56,

     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.

   • 1752, David Hume, Political Discourses, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson, Discourse 5, p. 81,

     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 […]

   • 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,

     It may be said, that the increase of the tax is an uncompensated reduction of the neat income of the landlord […]

5. Having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim, tidy, tasteful.

   The front room was neat and carefully arranged for the guests.

6. Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.

   Having the two protagonists meet in the last act was a particularly neat touch.

7. Facile; missing complexity or details in the favor of convenience or simplicity.

   Courts should not reduce this case to a neat set of legal rules.

8. (Canada, US, colloquial) Good, excellent, desirable.

   Hey, neat convertible, man.

   • 2011 June 20, Phil Mickelson (being quoted), “US Open: Jack Nicklaus tips Rory McIlroy for greatness”, in BBC News:

     "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."

9. Obsolete form of net (“remaining after expenses or deductions”).
   • 1824, Stephen Pike, The Teachers' Assistant: Or a System of Practical Arithmetic (page 97)

     What is the neat weight of 4 hogsheads of tobacco, each weighing 10cwt. 3qrs. 10lb. gross; — tare 100lb. per hdd.?

In bartending, neat has the formal meaning “a liquor pour straight from the bottle into a glass, at room temperature, without ice or chilling”. This is contrasted with on the rocks (“over ice”), and with drinks that are chilled but strained (stirred over ice to chill, but poured through a strainer so that there is no ice in the glass), which is formally referred to as up. However, the terminology is a point of significant confusion, with neat, up, straight up, and straight being used by bar patrons (and some bartenders) variously and ambiguously to mean either “unchilled” or “chilled” (but without ice in the glass), and hence clarification is often required.[1][2]

• (undiluted liquor or cocktail): on the rocks

• (undiluted liquor or cocktail): straight up, up, straight

• neat and tidy
• neat freak
• neatly

neat

1. Used to signify a job well done.
2. Used to signify approval.

neat (plural neats)

1. (informal) An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.

From Middle English nete, neat, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”) More at note.

neat (plural neat)

1. (archaic) A bull or cow.
   • 1557 February 13, Thomas Tusser, “Januarye”, in A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie., London: […] Richard Tottel, OCLC 1049068421; republished London: Reprinted for Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, OCLC 7109675, stanza 54:

     Who both by his calfe, & his lambe wil be known,
     may well kill a neate and a shepe of his owne.
     And he that wil reare up a pyg in his house,
     hath cheaper his bacon, and sweter his souse.

   • 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 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only commendable / In a neat's tongue dried.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

     […] he’s a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather.

   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, OCLC 890163163; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, OCLC 963614346, canto 2, page 51:

     Sturdy he was, and no less able,
     Then Hercules to clense a Stable;
     As great: Drover, and as great
     A Critick too, in Hog or Neat,

   • 1756, Thomas Amory, The Life of John Buncle, Esq., London: J. Noon, Chapter 28, p. 165,

     […] I sat down by this water in the shade to dine, on a neat’s tongue I had got from good Mrs. Price […]

2. (archaic) Cattle collectively.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, page 467:

     From thence into the open fields he fled,
     Whereas the Heardes were keeping of their neat
     And shepheards singing to their flockes, that fed,

   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:

     And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf
     Are all call’d neat.

   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “(please specify the poem)”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], OCLC 1044244285; republished as Henry G. Clarke, editor, Hesperides, or Works both Human and Divine, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: H. G. Clarke and Co., […], 1844, OCLC 1110372590:

     Thou on a Hillock thou may sing
     Unto a handsome Shepardling
     Or to a Girlie (that keeps the Neat)
     With breath more sweat than Violet.

• neatbeast
• neatherd
• neatfoot, neatsfoot
• neatish

• geneat

• Ante, Aten, Etan, Etna, Nate, Tean, Tena, anet, ante, ante-, etna, neta, ta'en

néat

1. basket

neat

1. third-person singular present active subjunctive of neō

From Proto-Germanic *nautą. Cognate with Old Frisian nāt, Old Saxon nōt, Dutch noot, Old High German nōz (dialectal German Nos), Old Norse naut.

• IPA^(key): /næ͜ɑːt/

nēat n

1. cow, ox; animal

• geneat
• nieten

• English: neat

Negative form of eat.

neat

1. nothing

• “neat”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011