What's the difference between nasty and naughty?

Nasty


Definition:

  • (superl.) Offensively filthy; very dirty, foul, or defiled; disgusting; nauseous.
  • (superl.) Hence, loosely: Offensive; disagreeable; unpropitious; wet; drizzling; as, a nasty rain, day, sky.
  • (superl.) Characterized by obcenity; indecent; indelicate; gross; filthy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) How does it stack up against the competition – and are there any nasties in the small print?
  • (2) Admirably, Clinton kept her cool throughout, particularly Trump when spoke over her to call her “such a nasty woman”.
  • (3) He wanted to stay on longer than the traditional retirement age but became involved in a nasty spat with the then-chairman, Peter Sutherland.
  • (4) It is the latest attack on the government from the Hungarian economist, whose previous criticism of David Cameron's "nasty" looking restrictions on benefits for foreigners led the angry prime minister to lodge a formal complaint.
  • (5) Protesters waved banners with slogans such as “Special relationship, just say no” and “Nasty women unite”.
  • (6) The examples I have quoted are the tip of a very large and very nasty iceberg.
  • (7) In short, it is alleged that under his rule Sri Lanka is becoming a nasty, authoritarian quasi-rogue banana republic.
  • (8) Patterson agrees that it’s all much more controlled now, but she also wonders whether at times the media can be too negative, doomy, and sometimes downright nasty.
  • (9) And I’m sorry, that will come before any internal party-political issue and I think I should be able to adopt that position without being attacked, without being subject to a nasty troll-form of politics.” On Tuesday the prime minister, David Cameron, promised to publish a comprehensive strategy on Syria in the form of a written response to a report by the foreign affairs select committee, which concluded that the government had failed to make the case for extending airstrikes.
  • (10) Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s leading centre of Islamic learning, called on Muslims to “ignore the nasty frivolity” of the latest edition.
  • (11) He was followed by Theresa May, who 13 years ago had warned that many voters thought the Conservatives were the “nasty party”, but who now pledged to clamp down on the rights of asylum seekers, and renewed her commitment to cut net migration to below 100,000 in terms so harsh that she was widely condemned even by her allies.
  • (12) I think it probably gave me a sense of self and self-protection that has been very useful, and I possibly have had less nasty moments than a lot of other women.
  • (13) Dr Rosemary Gillespie was the object of a “nasty, vindictive and sustained campaign of bullying” from her second day in the job at the UK’s biggest HIV charity, the tribunal heard.
  • (14) It had a “flat, nasty” ring to it, she says, which she has since “analysed like a Rubik’s cube; I have turned it every which way.
  • (15) Updated at 2.10pm BST 1.47pm BST Over to America, where the latest productivity figures confirm that the US economy took a nasty jolt over the winter, when bad weather gripped the country.
  • (16) It doesn't have to be bloody, it doesn't have to be nasty, but it does have to be fought."
  • (17) That was the one surprise in the budget – apart from the fine print of the nasties.
  • (18) Because the nastiness on our doorstep has piled too high for too long, and I just want to get out of the house.
  • (19) Southampton 3-0 Vitesse | Europa League third qualifying round match report Read more Even more damagingly for West Ham, they lost Enner Valencia to a potentially nasty knee injury in the first half after he caught his leg in the turf.
  • (20) They orginally had lofty ambitions of talking about the economy but since they have lost that argument so catastrophically, they have reached for the Ukip playbook to create fictitious stories to scare people about immigrants and release video nasties about Turkish people”.

Naughty


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having little or nothing.
  • (superl.) Worthless; bad; good for nothing.
  • (superl.) hence, corrupt; wicked.
  • (superl.) Mischievous; perverse; froward; guilty of disobedient or improper conduct; as, a naughty child.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Karmani described Respect as "the naughty children" of Bradford – "and with parents like that, what do you bloody expect?"
  • (2) Brand isn’t the messiah (or just a naughty boy, for that matter) and his message pisses off plenty of people.
  • (3) Funny nice, the kind that comes with a pleasing undercurrent of naughtiness.
  • (4) Consequently, there isn't a week that goes by without Delingpole causing some sort of kerfuffle, then running away laughing like a naughty boy who has just blown off through the headmaster's letterbox.
  • (5) Describing the moment McKellen knocked on his dressing room door he said: “I ushered him in nervously, expecting notes for my poor performance or indiscipline – I was a foolish, naughty young actor.
  • (6) We did not perform a sexy version of oppression or create a teasing "naughty" campaign.
  • (7) Harry describes her as “a total kid through and through”, whose motto was “you can be as naughty as you want, just don’t get caught”.
  • (8) When Michael is naughty she threatens to hand him over to "the policeman" and she sends grumpy Jane to exile inside a cracked Doulton bowl.
  • (9) In keeping with her policy of never ­giving interviews, she was spared a grilling by Naughtie.
  • (10) I seesaw-grunted out of bed at 8.30am and had a bird bath, soaping mainly the naughty bits, for I was in a hurry that Wednesday: it was the day I filed my Observer TV review.
  • (11) Francesco Totti has escaped with a spell on the naughty step for goading Lazio fans in the wake of Sunday's Rome derby, but has been fined €10,000 for each thumb he pointed down in a bid to rile them up.
  • (12) In the aftermath of the goal, Ameobi must have said something naughty to Dowd, who sends him to the tunnel.
  • (13) The impending publication of the putative nude pictures, a humiliation that turned out to be a bluff, might have pulled Watson down among the lower orders of former child stars, those people who now exist in the public consciousness merely as cautionary tales to scare naughty teenagers: “Look what happened to Bieber today!”; “Did you see Cyrus in that outfit?” Although Watson has put her head above the parapet before, the provocation cited by the hoaxers was the New York speech she gave last Monday promoting the HeForShe campaign and arguing that gender discrimination harms both men and women.
  • (14) Quite the reverse: Charlie Hebdo was described decades ago as “ bête et méchant ” – bad and naughty – and has revelled in the description ever since.
  • (15) Pupils are never naughty, just “unprofessional”; for lateness, lack of homework and classroom disruption, they lose some of the 50 “professionalism points” with which they start each week.
  • (16) In recent months, he has fallen out with so many first-team players that locals joke about the need for a "naughty step" at the training ground.
  • (17) It originally quoted Kathryn Bigelow as saying "naughty subjects" rather than "knotty subjects"
  • (18) Brazil skipper Thiago Silva must sit this one out on the naughty step after picking up a silly booking - his second of the tournament - for obstructing Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina as he attempted to take a kick.
  • (19) Naughtie, interviewing Gardner, paused and said "that's a fascinating piece of information".
  • (20) "He went for it," says Beckett with a laugh, sounding less like a record mogul and more like a naughty schoolboy.