neat

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   without water

   They took their whiskey neat.

2. 2
   adj

   free from what is tawdry or unbecoming

   a neat style

3. 3
   adj

   clean or organized

   The room was always kept neat.

4. 4
   adj

   showing care in execution

   neat homework

5. 5
   adj

   Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

   My room is neat because I tidied it this morning.  She has very neat hair.

6. 6
   adj

   Free from contaminants; unadulterated, undiluted. Particularly of liquor and cocktails; see usage below.

   I like my whisky neat.

7. 7
   adj

   Conditions with a liquid reagent or gas performed with no standard solvent or cosolvent.

   The Arbuzov reaction is performed by adding the bromide to the phosphite, neat.  The molecular beam was neat acetylene.

8. 8
   adj

   With all deductions or allowances made; net.

   Why without telling the least title of Falshood, within the space of the last Week’s Play, the Gains of Count Cog, really amounted to no less than Twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling neat Money.

Etymology

From Middle English nete, neat, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-West Germanic *naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”). More at note.