nice
(nīs)
[Middle English, foolish, from Old French, from Latin nescius, ignorant, from nescīre, to be ignorant; see nescience.]
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' steep,/From her cabin'd loop-hole peep” (John Milton)
derivatives
- nicély
- adverb
- nicéness
- noun
Nice
(nēs)
- A city of southeast France on the Mediterranean Sea northeast of Cannes. Controlled by various royal houses after the 13th century, the city was finally ceded to France in 1860. It is the leading resort city of the French Riviera.
