Dictionary

netty en · ADJ · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈnɛti/

Etymology

From net (“elegant, neat”) + -y (“forming adjs. of slightly lesser degree”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete, rare) Neat, well-groomed, natty.
   • How prettie, how fine and how nettie, Good huswife should yettie. 1573, Thomas Tusser, “Points of Huswifrie”, in Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry:

Forms

netty en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈnɛti/

Etymology

From netball + -y.

Meanings

1. (Australia, informal, uncountable) Netball.
   • "The last couple of years I was playing netty in Sydney and wanted to give rugby a go and my trainer finally gave in and we decided to make a video and give it a crack and it took it off from there," Staples said. 2017 August 11, Eamonn Tiernan, “University of Canberra Sevens Rugby sign Youtube star Cassie Staples”, in Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2026:

Forms

netty en · ADJ · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈnɛti/

Etymology

From net (“openwork fabric mesh”) + -y (“forming adjectives”).

Meanings

1. Netted: made of or employing a net.
   • Ye ought for to keepe them close, till the day haue taken the gellie or netty rime, from the earth. 1587, Leonard Mascall, The Booke of Cattell: Sheep, page 214:
2. Netlike.

Forms

netty en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• /ˈnɛti/

Etymology

Uncertain. Proposed derivations include a corruption of necessary, a euphemism for outhouse; French nettoyer (“to cleanse”); and Italian gabinetto (“toilet”).

Meanings

1. (Geordie) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
   • Our toilet was an outside netty shared between two or three families, where you sat on a hole and hoped the cat wouldn't jump at your backside. 1992 May 4, The Independent, page 13:
   • A line of pit cottages... tiny back gardens with outside lavatories, ‘netties’, some of them emptied twice a week by the council. 1978, John Lewis, chapter III, in Uncertain Sound, page 75:
   • Neddy, Netty, a certain place that will not bear a written explanation, but which is depicted to the very life in a tail-piece in the first edition of Bewick's ‘Land Birds’ (1797), p. 285. 1825, John Trotter Brockett, Glossary of North Country Words::
2. (Geordie) Any other place or fixture used for urination and defecation: a lavatory; a toilet.
   • Netty, a privy or water-closet... A common name, amongst the working classes... In common use. In my recollection it was looked upon as a euphemism. 1903, English Dialect Dictionary, volume IV, page 255:

Forms

Synonyms

toilet (toilet) · bathroom (outhouse)