Word.ws English Dictionary

ned

/nɛd/

ned noun: a person, usually a youth, of low social standing and education, with a violent disposition and a particular style of dress (typically sportswear or Burberry), speech and behaviour.

Noun (1)

ned (plural neds)

  1. (Scotland, derogatory, offensive, slang) A person, usually a youth, of low social standing and education, with a violent disposition and a particular style of dress (typically sportswear or Burberry), speech and behaviour.
    • The mindless behaviour of drunken neds and nuisance neighbours brings misery to tens of thousands of honest folk.2007 (Scotland), RecordView in Daily Record, 14 Feb 07, Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail, p. 8
    • You could live in a place for twenty years, you could clean up its streets and lock up its neds.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 28

Proper noun (1) capitalized: NED

NED

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of New English Dictionary.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of National Endowment for Democracy.

Noun (2) capitalized: NED

NED (plural NEDs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym, derogatory) Acronym of non-educated delinquent.

Phrase capitalized: NED

NED

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of no evidence of disease.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Ned

IPA/ˈnɛd/

Ned (plural Neds)

  1. A medieval diminutive of the male given name Edward.
    • [B]ut ſweete Ned, to ſweeten which name of Ned, I giue thee this peniworth of ſugar, […]c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]...
    • Each winter, after their seasons end, both Neds return to their respective homes in Georgia.2019 August 8, Alec Lewis, “‘They call me Nice Ned’: Brewers coach Ned Yost IV is finding his way in the family business”, in The Athletic, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...

ned meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

ned in Hindi

एन. ई. डी, एन. इ. डी

ned in Marathi

एन. ई. डी, एन. इ. डी, नेड

ned in Urdu

نیڈ, این ای ڈی

ned in Bengali

এন. ই. ডি, নেড
More languagesFewer languages
ned in Telugu
నెడ్, ఎన్. ఇ. డి
ned in Malayalam
നെഡ്
ned in Kannada
ಎನ್. ಇ. ಡಿ, ನೆಡ್
ned in Punjabi
ਐੱਨ. ਈ. ਡੀ
ned in Gujarati
એન. ઇ. ડી, નેડ
ned in Odia
ଏନ୍. ଇ. ଡି, ନେଡ୍
ned in Nepali
नेड

Synonyms of ned

Forms of ned

Noun
pluralneds
pluralNEDs
Proper noun
pluralNeds

Origin of ned

Unknown. The suggested initialism from "non-educated delinquent" is a backronym and folk etymology. Several other suggestions include a contraction of ne'er-do-well, neanderthal, or some kind of relationship with Teddy Boy although its use much predates the 1950s origin of that phrase. Ostensibly unrelated to "Ned" as a diminutive of the personal name "Edward" but the Scottish use of 'ned' for hooligan or lout is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary as dating from the early 19th century. The OED also attributes a possible derivation from the 'Edward' diminutive.

From rebracketing of the phrase mine Ed to my Ned.

Words formed from ned

Phrases with ned

Words that rhyme with ned

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ned

What does ned mean?
Ned means a person, usually a youth, of low social standing and education, with a violent disposition and a particular style of dress (typically sportswear or Burberry), speech and behaviour.
What is ned in Hindi?
Ned in Hindi is एन. ई. डी, एन. इ. डी. See Ned meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ned?
Ned can be a noun, a proper noun or a phrase.
How do you pronounce ned?
Ned is pronounced /nɛd/.
What is the plural of ned?
The plural of ned is neds.

Words near ned in the dictionary

  1. nectrideans
  2. nectridian
  3. nectrophic
  4. nectrotrophic
  5. necyomancy
  6. ned
  7. Ned Flanders
  8. Ned Kelly
  9. Ned Kelly beard
  10. Ned Kelly beards
  11. Ned Kellys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ned (page history and authors); NED (page history and authors); Ned (page history and authors); ned (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ned (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-ned.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-ned.wav.

Cite this entry: “ned.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ned. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.