neater

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.
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
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

See all 16 meanings of neat