adj. (colloquial).—Ill-tempered; disagreeable; cutting: e.g., NASTY JAR, a stinging retort; NASTY KNOCK (or ONE), a disagreeable experience; NASTY ONE IN THE EYE = a telling blow.
1874. E. L. LINTON, Patricia Kemball, iii. He would have thought her temper had turned NASTY, though that was not her way.
1878. A. TROLLOPE, Is He Popenjoy? ix. She is a NASTY hardened creature, and I do hate her…. How a woman can be so NASTY I cannot imagine.
1880. OUIDA, Moths, xv. The lovely Fuschia possessed in reserve an immense relating power of being NASTY were she displeased.
1881. R. G. WHITE, England Without and Within, xvi. Lady A—— said … to her husband, … ‘Do take some [soup], A——: it’s not at all NASTY.’ Ibid. In England … a stormy day [is called] ‘a NASTY day.’
1886–96. MARSHALL, Honest Bill [‘Pomes,’ 50]. They called him Captain Chickweed, and he’d planned a NASTY KNOCK.
1891. LEHMANN, Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 84. Then he said … one idle son in a family was more than enough (that’s a NASTY ONE for you, Pat, my boy).
CHEAP AND NASTY, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Pleasing to the eye, but worthless in fact.
1864. Athenæum, 29 Oct. CHEAP AND NASTY, or, in a local form, ‘CHEAP AND NASTY, LIKE SHORT’S IN THE STRAND,’ a proverb applied to the deceased founder of cheap dinners.
