nasty
adjective
physically filthy; disgustingly unclean.
nasty
1 American
[nas-tee]
/ ˈnæs ti /
adjective
-
nastier,
comparative
-
nastiest
superlative
-
physically filthy; disgustingly unclean.
a nasty pigsty of a room.
- Antonyms:
- unstained, spotless, immaculate, clean
-
offensive to taste or smell; nauseating.
This ointment is really nasty—couldn't they make it smell less vile?
-
a nasty habit.
-
vicious, spiteful, or unkind.
a nasty dog;
a nasty rumor.
-
bad or hard to deal with, encounter, undergo, etc.; dangerous; serious: a nasty accident.
a nasty cut;
a nasty accident.
-
very unpleasant or disagreeable.
nasty weather.
-
morally filthy; obscene; indecent.
a nasty word.
- Synonyms:
- smutty
-
Slang. formidable: a young pitcher with a nasty slider.
the raw, nasty power of this engine;
a young pitcher with a nasty slider.
noun
-
nasties
plural
-nasty
2
American
nasty
1
British
/ ˈnɑːstɪ /
adjective
-
unpleasant, offensive, or repugnant
-
(of an experience, condition, etc) unpleasant, dangerous, or painful
a nasty wound
-
spiteful, abusive, or ill-natured
-
obscene or indecent
-
informal a cruel or mean person
noun
-nasty
2
British
combining form
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of nasty1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, further origin unknown
Origin of -nasty2
Explanation
Something nasty is filthy, foul, dirty, or awful. Nasty isn't a word for anything nice. The main meaning of nasty is for things that are unpleasant and very gross. If someone throws up in class, at least one student will probably say, "That's nasty!" The smell of a bathroom is nasty. A song full of dirty words is nasty in a different way. Nasty can also mean "extremely." In football, a vicious hit can be called a nasty hit. A mean person is a nasty person too.
Vocabulary lists containing nasty
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 7
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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More Negative Words to Describe a Person
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The dispute has gotten nasty, mostly through posts on competing Facebook groups.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
That could lead to a nasty surprise for which they might not have budgeted.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Werro survived an almighty scare on Thursday when she suffered a nasty fall in her semi-final, before later being reinstated in the competition.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
That comes from finding common ground, not from scare ads and nasty attacks.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
“But they were nasty because we couldn’t sleep as long as the Po-2s approached.”
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Some nasties, including dioxins, can be broken down by fungi and microbes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2025
Think of what you step in outside: Shoes can carry all kinds of nasties, including pesticides and bacteria such as E. coli.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
AMR is a broad phenomenon, but simply describes when our tools defending against deadly microscopic nasties stop working.
From Salon ● Mar. 9, 2024
The researchers tested the principles of AI-aided antibiotic discovery in E. coli in 2020, but have now used that knowledge to focus on the big nasties.
From BBC ● May 25, 2023
I looked around the band hall, sure that Rachel was going to make a bunch of bloodthirsty nasties pop out of the walls; but we were still alone.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
Some could get nastier surprises if the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
"Reserves and efficiency offer some buffer which the episodes in the 1970s lacked, but the raw scale of lost supply makes this nastier, with no fast fix in sight."
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
Watch as the fluid camerawork makes her kills look nastier, and the preposterous script allows her to outwit her foes, even with the cards stacked against her at every turn.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
The work of Webster and others led to the discovery that several of the nastier historical flu pandemics have been the result of this kind of reassortment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2024
You start dragging out each little chore because if the manager on duty catches you in an idle moment he will give you something far nastier to do.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
“You want the cheapest, nastiest crude others can’t run,” Kemp said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
That gets my vote for the single nastiest opinion of 2025.
From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2026
He mowed through the Dodgers’ league-leading offense with triple-digit fastballs and upper-90s mph sliders, which Dodgers catcher Will Smith called the nastiest current pitch in the sport.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2025
One of the largest, priciest and nastiest proxy contests in history will come to a head on Wednesday, when Disney is scheduled to virtually host its annual shareholder meeting.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2024
Having worked in intelligence himself, he marveled at the thought of this “wispy, gentle, self-effacing woman knocking off, one by one, some of the nastiest pieces of business then existing.”
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
