Nice, a.

a. [compar. NICER; superl. NICEST.] [O. Fr. nice, ignorant, fool, from Lat. nescius, ignorant, Pr. nesci, Sp. necio. The original sense was also in English ignorant, foolish; e. g., “For he was nyce, and knowthe no wisdom.” R. of Gloucester. “But say that we ben wise and nothing nice.” Chaucer. But then A-S. hnese, hnesc, nesc, Eng. nesh, seems to have been confounded with it.]

1. Pleasing to the senses, especially to the taste; delicate; tender; dainty; as, a nice dish or bit.
2. Hence, in a colloquial use, and more generally, serving to please; agreeable; gratifying; delightful; as, a nice party.
3. Wrought or made by a skillful workman; produced by an acute or fastidious mind; requiring refinement of apprehension, or delicacy of treatment; hence, requiring to be daintily touched, discussed, judged of, or the like; to be scrupulously and exactly handled; delicate; refined; as, a nice distinction or point.

A nice and subtile happiness I see Thou to thyself proposed. Milton. The difference is too nice Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. Pope. 4. Showing delicacy or refinement; characterized by exactness; apprehending slight differences or delicate distinctions; distinguishing accurately or minutely; as, nice proportions, rules, or symmetry; a nice taste or judgment. “Our author happy in a judge so nice.” Pope. “Nice verbal criticism.” Coleridge. In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true, From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew. Pope. 5. Over-scrupulous or exact; too exacting; hard to please or satisfy; fastidious. “Curious, not knowing; not exact, but nice.” Pope. And to taste Think not I shall be nice. Milton. 6. Delicate; scrupulously and minutely cautious. Dear love, continue nice and chaste. Donne. 7. Of trifling moment; unimportant; trivial. [Obs.] The letter was not nice, but full of charge Of dear import. Shak. 8. Weak; foolish; effeminate. [Obs.] Gower. To make nice, to be scrupulous. [Obs.] Shak. Syn.—Dainty; delicate; exquisite; fine; accurate; exact; correct; precise; particular; scrupulous; punctilious; fastidious; squeamish; finical; effeminate; silly; weak; foolish.—NICE, PLEASING. Nice implies a union of delicacy and exactness. In nice food, cookery, taste, &c., delicacy predominates; in nice discrimination, management, workmanship, a nice point to manage, &c., exactness predominates. Of late, a new sense has been introduced, which excludes them both, namely, pleasing; as, a nice girl, a nice party, a nice excursion, &c. We even hear it used for beautiful; as, a nice morning, a nice day, &c. This use of the word, though sanctioned by no lexicographer, is extremely common among the English; and if Americans overdo as to “fine,” they overdo as to “nice,” but with this difference, that we always give the former its true sense [see FINE], while they rob the latter of its appropriate and distinctive meaning.