sexyadj.
/ˈsɛksi/, U.S. /ˈsɛksi/ Originally U.S.
1. Containing or characterized by explicit sexual content; erotic, risqué; bawdy, saucy.
ΚΠ
1896 A. Bennett Let. 16 May (1968) II. 50 Lane had decided..not to handle your work of genius, on the score that it was seksy & America didn't want no seks-problems.
1905 Rev. of Reviews Aug. 205/2 As one good lady said with a sigh of relief on laying down one of Allen Raine's stories—‘nothing sexy in her books’.
1928 Sunday Disp. 2 Dec. 19/2 Australian audiences..like sex plays, but they mustn't be too sexy.
1940 N. Mitford Pigeon Pie ii. 29 He had been most famous as a singer of those sexy ballads which were adored by our grandparents.
1975 ‘R. Player’ Let's talk of Graves iii. 80 The seminarists were..casting perplexed eyes to Heaven, the Immaculate Conception being far too sexy to explain to adolescents.
1992 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 6 Feb. (Entertainment section) 29 It's a sexy, often-even-bawdy tale of love, lust and 18th-century manners, full of saucy dialogue and clever double-entendres.
2.
a. Of a person (esp. a woman): sexually attractive or alluring; (also) sexually charged, highly sexed.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [adjective] > sexually attractive
nymphic1799
sexy1912
sex-appealing1923
hotcha1924
hot1926
ooh-la-la1929
bed-worthy1936
beddable1941
phat1963
smoking1989
kewl1990
smoking hot1994
bess2006
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual desire > [adjective] > causing sexual excitement or desire > specifically of a woman
lush1891
sexy1912
slutty1912
foxy1913
leggy1927
floozy?1930
sultry1940
nubile1944
1912 Colorado Springs Gaz. 1 Dec. 39 If a woman is genuinely keen to win the affections of a man she is a universal woman of the real sexy sort.
1923 Los Angeles Times 15 May ii. 7/2 Even Elinor Glyn, who rather specializes in sexy heroines, has obviously been confronted with this type... The sexiest men have quite a number of other and more important interests.
1934 D. Thomas Let. 9 May in Sel. Lett. (1966) 120 I shall now attempt to..look all sexy at the mantel-piece.
1944 C. Beaton Diary in Self Portrait with Friends (1979) xiv. 145 Sexy, apricot-coloured husbands with their arrogant wives.
1957 W. Camp Prospects of Love ii. iii There must be something about her..which screams that she's beddable. A girl doesn't have to be pretty to be sexy.
1969 A. L. Rowse Diary 18 July (2003) 443 The affair was on and off, they bickered and quarrelled, Igor was very sexy, very Slav, temperamental, intolerable.
1974 K. Tynan Diary 24 Nov. (2001) 205 I'm very taken with this spunky girl (apart from anything else, she's very sexy).
1993 J. Green It: Sex since Sixties 302 I'm now a haggard bimbette of twenty-eight, but I used to be considered a most fantastically sexy woman.
2007 Time Out N.Y. 26 July 36/1 Sexy barmen with artfully mussed hair.
b. Of a personal attribute, thing, etc.: characterized by sexuality or sexual appeal; sexually attractive, stimulating, or suggestive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > [adjective]
fleshlyc900
carnala1500
physical1778
sexual1809
pandemian1818
pandemica1822
sexful1894
sexy1923
bedroom1924
1923 Los Angeles Times 15 May ii. 7/2 Motion-picture directors are suffering from..an obsession for sexy bare shoulders and sexy love-making.
1941 Chicago Sunday Tribune 18 May (Graphic section) 3/1 Zook, studio couturier, is designing a sexy car-hop costume modeled after the uniforms of parachute troops.
1947 J. Steinbeck Wayward Bus 84 Her voice was throaty and sexy.
1959 Housewife Oct. 131/2 Did she keep her figure beautiful and wear sexy nightgowns?
1967 ‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp ix. 179 I'm the guy with the pretty towel wrapped around his sexy hips.
1980 S. Brett Dead Side of Mike xv. 162 He just does a long sequence of slow, sexy numbers, so they can dance real close.
2005 ‘Noire’ Candy Licker i. 10 Soft brown skin and..sexy blue eyes. I've run through some jawns up in here, but you're a keeper.
c. colloquial. In extended use: appealing, stimulating; liable to excite interest.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > effect produced on emotions > quality appealing to emotion or imagination > [adjective]
sexy1950
1950 W. Winchell in Charleston (W. Va.) Daily Mail 15 May 16/3 The producers of ‘Fire Island, New York’ feared that title wouldn't sound sexy enough. The new gee-whiz tag is ‘Island of Fire’.
1956 N.Y. Times 12 Aug. iv. 3/5 It is the Democratic thesis that a day of reckoning is coming and that the Eisenhower Administration is oblivious to the danger. That is admittedly not a very sexy kind of campaign dogma.
1964 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 58 132/1 The product of the same academic conference is a ‘book’..with slick pages, attractive type..a sexy title, and a selling price of $7.50.
1970 Wall St. Jrnl. 22 Sept. 1/6 Corn and soybeans may not sound as sexy as electronics or aerospace.
1991 What Personal Computer Dec. 7/1 I intend to make sure that we look beyond the pretty screens and sexy specifications to concentrate on what really matters to..the user.
2002 Independent 18 Feb. 17/3 The..security operation was supposed to be the sexy high growth part while the..fire protection business was seen as worthy but dull.
Compounds
sexy-looking adj.
ΚΠ
1935 J. T. Farrell Judgment Day ii. 22 He watched the dark sexy-looking waitress scurry with a large tray of food.
1963 A. Ross Australia 63 23 A sexy-looking torch singer breathed huskily into her microphone.
2003 Internat. Smart House 3 56/2 Weighing in at a very reasonable price, the sexy looking SAVE353 from Sony appears to have it all.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1896