▪ I. nighty, n.
(ˈnaɪtɪ)
Also nightie.
[f. night- (see def.) + -y.]
A familiar (orig. nursery) name for a night-gown or night-dress; also transf. of a surplice. Also attrib. and Comb.
| 1871 ‘S. May’ Prudy keeping House 98 After a nice bath..the little one was dressed in her nightie. 1894 S. Hale Lett. (1919) 286 A blind I opened (thereby drenching me and my nighty) banged and smashed a big pane. 1895 in Funk's Stand. Dict. 1897 Flandrau Harvard Episodes 205 A nice little boy at S. Timothy's,—piping liquidly in an angelic ‘nighty’ at Chapel. 1903 Morn. Leader 3 Dec. 7 The ‘nighty’ is smartened up..by being tied with narrow ribbons down the front. 1908 Daily Chron. 14 Sept. 5/5 So I folded up my nightie and went into the street. 1913 R. Brooke Let. in Coll. Poems (1918) p. lxxx, We may only find each other in a whiter world, nighty-clad, harped, winged, celibate. 1934 R. Nichols Fisbo 36 Frivolous and frolicsome and flighty As the naughtiest flapper in her newest nightie. 1968 ‘O. Mills’ Sundry Fell Designs iii. 29 Vicky's got a mangy old nightie-case she won't go to bed without. 1972 ‘G. Black’ Bitter Tea (1973) x. 157 The hospital nighty..felt slightly scratchy. |
▪ II. † ˈnighty, a. Obs. rare.
[f. night n. + -y1.]
Pertaining to night; nightly, nightlike.
| ? c 1400 Lydg. æsop's Fab. i. 19 To chase away [þe] nyghty [v.r. myghty] clowdes blake. 1530 [see nightish a.]. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 55 Wee keepe thee midpath with darcknesse nightye beueyled. |