nutty

English

Etymology

From nut +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnʌti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌti
• Hyphenation: nut‧ty

Adjective

nutty (comparative nuttier, superlative nuttiest)

1. Containing nuts.

   This is a nutty chocolate bar.

2. Resembling or characteristic of nuts.
   • 1997, Mary Jo Plutt, Prevention's Stop Dieting and Lose Weight Cookbook, Rodale, →ISBN, page 210:

     Brown rice has had only its outer hull removed, leaving it with a beige color and a pleasantly nutty flavor.

3. (slang) Barmy, crazy, mad.

   Synonyms: nuts, squirrelly; see also Thesaurus:insane

   Your wife is as nutty as a fruitcake.

4. (British, dated) Extravagantly fashionable.
   • 1932, Frank Richards, “The Complete Outsider”, in The Magnet:

     Skinner's friendship with his nutty pals seemed to have come to a sudden end.

Usage notes

• In the sense of “insane”, similar to nuts, but more limited and somewhat milder: nutty means “eccentric, insane”, while “nuts” can mean either “insane, crazy” or “excited, enthused”, for example in the phrase “the crowd went nuts”, the other term, “the crowd went nutty”, is not used.

Derived terms

• nuttily
• nuttiness
• nutty as a fruit cake
• nutty Irishman
• nutty slack

 

Related terms

• nutter

Translations

containing nuts

• Czech: ořechový (cs)
• Finnish: pähkinä-, pähkinäinen
• French: plein de noix
• German: nussreich
• Polish: orzechowy (pl) m
• Russian: содержа́щий оре́хи (soderžáščij oréxi), име́ющий вкус оре́ха (iméjuščij vkus oréxa)

reminiscent of nuts

• Finnish: pähkinäinen
• German: nussig
• Swedish: nötaktig (sv), nötig (sv)

barmy, crazy, mad

• Esperanto: frenezeta
• Finnish: kaheli (fi), pöpi (fi)
• French: cinglé (fr), fou (fr), dingue (fr)
• German: verrückt (de), bekloppt (de)
• Polish: pomylony (pl) m, zwariowany (pl) m
• Russian: поме́шанный (ru) (poméšannyj), свихну́вшийся (ru) (svixnúvšijsja)
• Swedish: knasig (sv)