nice

(n

s)
KEY
ADJECTIVE:
nic·er
,
nic·est
- Pleasing and agreeable in nature:
had a nice time.
- Having a pleasant or attractive appearance:
a nice dress; a nice face.
- Exhibiting courtesy and politeness:
a nice gesture.
- Of good character and reputation; respectable.
- Overdelicate or fastidious; fussy.
- Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle:
a nice distinction; a nice sense of style.
- Done with delicacy and skill:
a nice bit of craft.
- Used as an intensive with and:
nice and warm.
-
Obsolete
- Wanton; profligate:
"For when mine hours/Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives/Of me for jests"
(Shakespeare).
- Affectedly modest; coy:
"Ere . . . /The nice Morn on th' Indian steep,/From her cabin'd loop-hole peep"
(John Milton).
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English,
foolish, from Old French, from Latin
nescius,
ignorant, from
nesc
re,
to be ignorant ; see
nescience
OTHER FORMS:
nice
ly
(Adverb),
nice
ness
(Noun)