nifty
/ˈnɪfti
/adjective (niftier, niftiest) informal
1Particularly good, skilful, or effective: nifty footwork...
- Left winger Richard Kingham then showed some nifty footwork for Baildon's fourth try, which Lister again improved.
- That kind of nifty footwork might work against Darren Purse in the Premiership, John, but it won't work here.
- What causes the balls to fly off these bats is a nifty bit of physics called the trampoline effect.
Synonyms
skilful, capable, agile
useful, effective, practical
1.1Attractive or stylish: a nifty black shirt...
- One bloke who was wearing nifty black and blue shoes had a trick where he dropped down onto one hand.
- Men's pieces included a nifty shirt with one side straight and the other side twisted, and sleeveless backless tops.
- There is a nifty little kitchen range that comes in high-gloss black, which will, I hope, look rather smart.
Synonyms
fashionable, stylish, smart
Derivatives
niftily
/ adverb ...- The video monitor is accompanied by a very niftily painted hearse done in the artist's appealing graphic style.
- The grandchildren of the original swing and ballroom dancers are now the ones demonstrating their niftily executed foxtrot or flamboyant lindy-hop routine.
- He niftily circumvents the real issues, to do with educational content and assessment, and instead focuses on the abstract virtues of cleverness and hard work.
niftiness
/ noun ...- In Brooks' last creation, Insomnia (a collaboration with Verdecchia), the meta-cleverness of word craft and the niftiness of stagecraft outweighed the play's affective power.
- The charm and niftiness of her cooking is that it has coped with 20 years in Europe, America and Jamaica and been impressively adaptive.
- For a little extra niftiness the characters gain Bouncer Points (essentially experience points) that can be saved up to enhance a character's physical attributes and to open special moves.
Origin
Mid 19th century: of unknown origin.