Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

nitty

American  
[nit-ee] / ˈnɪt i /

adjective

nittier, nittiest
  1. full of nits.


nitty 1 British  
/ ˈnɪtɪ /

adjective

  1. infested with nits

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

nitty 2 British  
/ ˈnɪtɪ /

adjective

  1. informal foolish; stupid

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of nitty

First recorded in 1560–70; nit 1 + -y 1


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:

Before we get into the nitty gritty, had you already been a fan of “Squid Game”? Did you watch the first season?

From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2024

They were just sort of in a, in a very nitty gritty way, trying to solve the problems that were put in front of them.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 12, 2023

If you love getting into the nitty gritty of your profession and talking about a subject for two hours, make a podcast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2023

Young, a veteran congressional staffer with warm relationships on both sides of the aisle, comes into the debt-limit fight armed with years of experience negotiating the nitty gritty details of federal government spending.

From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2023

He has need o' a clean pow that ca's his neighbour nitty now.

From The Proverbs of Scotland by Alexander Hislop

If that were still a really strong issue, I don't think I could have gone into nittier, grittier aspects of anything underneath it.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2022

“She really gets into the nittiest nitty-gritty details, and with an understanding of how important they are to the outcomes.”

From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2022

But the primary reason is much more practical: Throughout history, and still in many countries throughout the world, the left hand is reserved for the nittiest and grittiest of bathroom duties.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2021

Both books drill down into the nittiest of gritty details.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2015

On Capitol Hill, North Carolina's Democratic Senator Sam Ervin denounced the experiment as "nitpicking of the nittiest kind."

From Time Magazine Archive

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training