neat

Adjective

neat (comparative neater, superlative neatest)

1. Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.
   • My room is neat because I tidied it this morning. She has very neat hair.
   • Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans...
2. Free from contaminants or impurities, unadulterated.
   • At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used ‘neat.’1932, Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pastime, New York: Cornerstone Library, 1965
3. (especially) At full strength, free from dilution (usually with water), undiluted
   • A cup of neate wine of Orleance,
     That never came neer the brewers of England.1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 464-465
   • From this same Head, this Fountain-head divine, / For different Palates springs a different Wine! / In which no Tricks, to strengthen, or to thin ’em— / Neat as imported—no French Brandy in em’—1756, David Garrick, Catharine and Petruchio, London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, Prologue
4. (especially) Neither straight up nor on the rocks
   • I like my whisky neat, so you have no need for ice at all.
5. 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.
6. (archaic) 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.1720, William Bond, chapter 4, in The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, London: E. Curll, pages 55–56
   • Dr. Swift […] says, in his short view of the state of Ireland, that the whole cash of that kingdom amounted to 500,000 l. that out of this they remitted every year a neat million to England, and had scarce any other source to compensate themselves from […]1752, David Hume, Political Discourses, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson, Discourse 5, page 81
7. Having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim, tidy, tasteful.
   • The front room was neat and carefully arranged for the guests.
8. Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.
   • Having the two protagonists meet in the last act was a particularly neat touch.
9. Facile; missing complexity or details in the favor of convenience or simplicity.
   • Courts should not reduce this case to a neat set of legal rules.
10. (Canada, US, colloquial) Good, excellent, desirable; interesting; cool.
    • Hey, neat convertible, man.
    • "You can tell that Rory has had this type of talent in him for some time now, and to see him putting it together is pretty neat to see."2011 June 20, Phil Mickelson (being quoted), “US Open: Jack Nicklaus tips Rory McIlroy for greatness”, in BBC News

Interjection

1. Used to signify a job well done.
2. Used to signify approval.

Noun (1)

neat (plural neats)

1. (informal) An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.

Noun (2)

neat (plural neats or neat)

1. (archaic) A bull or cow.
   • Who both by his calfe, & his lambe wil be known, / may well kill a neate and a shepe of his owne. / And he that wil reare up a pyg in his house, / hath cheaper his bacon, and sweter his souse.1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, “Januarye”, in A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and...
   • Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only commendable / In a neat's tongue dried.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]...

Noun (3)

neat pl (plural only)

1. (archaic, plural, plural-only) Cattle collectively.
   • From thence into the open fields he fled, / Whereas the Heardes were keeping of their neat / And shepheards singing to their flockes, that fed,1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 467
   • And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf / Are all call’d neat.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

   Synonyms:

   nolt

Noun (4) capitalized: NEAT

IPA/niːt/

NEAT (uncountable)

1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of neuroevolution of augmenting topologies, a genetic algorithm for the generation of evolving artificial neural networks.

Noun (5) capitalized: NEAT

IPA/niːt/

NEAT (uncountable)

1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

Proper noun capitalized: Neat

Neat (plural Neats)

1. A surname from Middle English.