PopVocab: Ne-Yo’s Nattiness
The word natty means “neatly or trimly smart in dress or appearance.” The word is almost always applied to men, specifically men wearing suits or other sharp, businesslike menswear, and often occurs in its adverbial form, as in “nattily dressed.”
When I think of a nattily-dressed man, I think of R&B star Ne-Yo:
Select your answer to this GRE Antonyms problem before clicking “more.”
NATTY:
A. frowzy
B. chichi
C. dapper
D. hoary
E. fey
The opposite of “natty” would be something like “sloppy.” Choice A, frowzy, means exactly this: “dirty, unkempt, smelly, musty.”
Note that chichi and dapper are synonym traps. Dapper is actually a very good synonym (culturally, the word is similar in that it is almost always applied to men), whereas chichi would not be a compliment: it means “showily or affectedly elegant or trendy; pretentious.” So, it’s on the same side as natty, but takes the idea too far. Chichi usually describes decor (the nouveau riche have chichi homes).
Hoary means “gray or white with age, wizened, sage.” Fey got an entire blog post here.
The answer is A.