American slang with several overlapping but distinct senses: meaning impressively badass (positive, similar to 'nasty' in hip-hop), loathsome or contemptible (derogatory), or simply disgusting (general use). Context and tone resolve which sense is intended -- 'nastyass moves' on a basketball court is a compliment; 'nastyass behavior' is condemnation. It is 'nasty' with 'ass' functioning as an emphatic intensifier suffix. Context resolves the apparent contradiction between its senses.
She had a nastyass jump shot that nobody in the league could stop.
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US slang with a double life: it can mean something or someone disgusting and repulsive, but it can also flip into a compliment meaning impressively tough, fierce, or badass. Context and tone do all the work. Call someone's cooking nastyass and you might mean it's revolting — or, in the right crowd, that it's outrageously good. The ambiguity is part of its swagger. Common in hip-hop slang and casual street speech.
That nastyass crossover he threw down had the whole gym going wild.
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(US, slang) badass.
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(US, slang) disgusting, gross.
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(US, slang, derogatory) loathsome, contemptible.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.