Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Behaving disobediently or mischievously.
- adjective Indecent; improper.
- noun One that is naughty.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having nothing; poor.
- Worthless; good-for-nothing; bad.
- Disagreeable.
- Morally bad; wicked; corrupt.
- In a mitigated sense, bad in conduct or speech; improper; mischievous: used with reference to the more or less venial faults or delinquencies of children, or playfully to those of older persons: as, a naughty child; naughty conduct; oh, you naughty man!
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Having little or nothing.
- adjective obsolete Worthless; bad; good for nothing.
- adjective Archaic hence, corrupt; wicked.
- adjective Mischievous; perverse; froward; guilty of disobedient or improper conduct.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective suggestive of sexual impropriety
- adjective badly behaved
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Other items inside were a set of furry handcuffs, bondage ropes with a sign reading "tied up at the moment", an eye mask with the label "naughty but nice", Viagra tablets and vibrators.
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And the easiest way to be naughty is to make some bigoted remark.
Somebody Kill Me Now 2008
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My naughty is a very visible minority of Missouri's citizens who routinely trash our streets and highways.
Fly Rod Giveaway! Tim Romano 2007
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Engaged in naughty writerly gossip, but did not succumb to peer pressure and accompany jaylake and karindira to the bar, staying behind to keep butt in chair and hands on keyboard.
2/27/07: Lo, I am mighty jaylake 2007
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Even the quintessential Good Book abounds in naughty passages like the men in II Kings 18: 27 who, as the comparatively tame King James translation puts it, “eat their own dung, and drink their own piss.”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore 2005
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And it says in a book I was reading only yesterday that not being naughty is not enough.
The Wouldbegoods Edith 1901
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"It's nothing naughty, is it," Daisy asked, "like the last time you had that was rousingly good?"
The Wouldbegoods Edith 1901
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It was only the rather comic grotesqueness seen sometimes in the face of a little child when he is what his mother calls a naughty boy, and distends his mouth and closes his eyes for a genuine howl.
Bunyip Land A Story of Adventure in New Guinea George Manville Fenn 1870
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But the word naughty provoked such a fit of crying that there was nothing for it but for Mrs Carbonel to pick the child up and struggle on as best she could, soothing her terror at the narrow paths and the unknown way, and the mysterious alarm of the woodlands, as well, perhaps, as the undefined sense of other people's dread and agitation.
The Carbonels Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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There was also a conspicuous absence of stimulus targets as President O desperately wanted to position for but decided to back off of, no banking reforms for the greedy and naughty bankers (I absolutely love the word naughty!) who caused the debacle in the first place nor were there any actions to stem that from occurring again in the future.
Fast Company 2009
misterpolly commented on the word naughty
When I was a little boy I was often naughty (sighs) now I find it much more difficult.
December 14, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word naughty
There was a naughty boy,
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be-
He took
In his knapsack
A book
Full of vowels
And a shirt
With some towels,
A slight cap
For night cap,
A hair brush,
Comb ditto,
New stockings-
For old ones
Would split O!
This knapsack
Tight at 'is back
He rivetted close
And followed his nose
To the North,
To the North,
And followed his nose
To the North.
There was a naughty boy,
And a naughty boy was he,
He ran away to Scotland
The people for to see-
There he found
That the ground
Was as hard,
That a yard
Was as long,
That a song
Was as merry,
That a cherry
Was as red-
That lead
Was as weighty
That fourscore
Was as eighty,
That a door
Was as wooden
As in England-
So he stood in his shoes
And he wondered,
He wondered,
He stood in his shoes
And he wondered.
(John Keats)
February 9, 2009
yarb commented on the word naughty
The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only rival whom he deemed worthy of his arms; and he resolved, by the final conquest of Persia, to chastise the naughty nation which had so long resisted and insulted the majesty of Rome.
- Gibbon, Decline and Fall, XXIV. i.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word naughty
Interesting citation, Yarb. Gibbon must be using the word in the sense of "disobedient" or perhaps "unruly", if not in the more archaic sense of "wicked".
June 10, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word naughty
Artaxerxes...
Artaxerxes... *ponders*
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word naughty
Right, C_B, but not to be confused with "Atta Xerxes!", which is how the Old Persians praised their kids and dogs when they did something clever.
June 10, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word naughty
Oh! Yes, of course.
*now pondering "Xerxes"*
I almost named my dog Xerxes when I was a kid. Maybe I should consider naming my kid Xerxes now that I'm a bear.
June 10, 2009
reesetee commented on the word naughty
Why would you do that to a kid?
Now, a pet bird....
*pondering*
June 10, 2009
fbharjo commented on the word naughty
naughty meanings has gone from 'bad' to 'mischief'
September 8, 2009
thesaraheffect commented on the word naughty
Last night I read a verse in my King James bible which, had I not already been a lover of the Book, would have converted me then and there:
"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."
Beautiful, just beautiful.
September 17, 2009
Jubjub commented on the word naughty
Ah! Here I am.
December 21, 2009