Nās'ty, a.
a. [compar. NASTIER; superl. NASTIEST.] [Prov. Eng. nast, dirt, nastiness, probably allied to Ger. nasz, O. Sax. & D. nat, wet, Ger. netzen, Goth. natjan, to wet, moisten.]
Sense 1. Offensively filthy; very dirty, foul, or defiled; disgusting; nauseous.
Sense 2. Characterized by obscenity; indecent; indelicate; gross; filthy.
Synonyms—NASTY, WET, FILTHY, FOUL, DIRTY. Any thing nasty is wet or damp, and disgusts by its stickiness or odor. Not so with filthy and foul, which imply only that a thing is filled or covered with offensive matter; as, filthy clothing, foul vapors, &c. The English have a peculiar use of this word, calling a rain in fine drops a nasty rain, a day of such rain a nasty day, a sky which portends it a nasty sky, thus retaining the original sense of wet as the leading idea. See etymology of DIRT.