naughty

comparative naughtier · superlative naughtiest · alternative noughty

1. Mischievous; tending to misbehave or act badly (especially of a child).First known use 17th c.

   Some naughty boys at school hid the teacher's lesson notes.

   1 more example

   Ding dong bell, The Cat is in the well. Who put her in, Little Johnny Green. What a naughty boy was that, To drown poor Puſſy Cat, Who never did him any harm, And kill'd the mice in his father's barn.

   1795, Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The Nursery Parnassus, Stockton: R. Christopher, page 25

   Synonyms: impish, misbehaved, impudent, sassy, audacious, bold, get wise, bold-faced

2. Sexually provocative; now in weakened sense, risqué, cheeky.First known use 19th c.

   I bought some naughty lingerie for my honeymoon.

   1 more example

   If I see you send another naughty email to your friends, you will be forbidden from using the computer!

   Synonyms: dirty, racy, saucy, adult, bawdy, blue, cheeky, dirty · Antonyms: innocent, nice

3. informalDecadent, had as indulgence, especially an unhealthy one.

   You knew I had to include at least one naughty chocolate smoothie, didn't you?!

   2014 November 18, Amber Shea Crawley, Practically Raw: Flexible Raw Recipes Anyone Can Make, Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN

   Synonyms: cheeky, epicurean, sinful, voluptuary, Babylonian, decadent, epicureal, epicurean

4. archaicEvil, wicked, morally reprehensible.First known use 15th c.

   Meowky as naughty folks

   1983, Namco, Mappy

   4 more examples

   my proneſſe to ſinne, and naughty appetites and desires, woulde drawe me headlong to the pitte of hell

   1589, John Bucke, Instructions for the Use of the Beades

   […]How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 17:4

   Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomack differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unappliable to occasions of evill.

   1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC

   Synonyms: baneful, nithing, sordid, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed

5. obsoleteBad, worthless, substandard.First known use 16th–19th c.

   In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche.

   1542, Andrew Boorde, The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge

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   One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 24:2

   Synonyms: lousy, second-rate, two-bit, valueless, ass, bad, base, below par