Definition of "neat"

Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0091

A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎

A cup of neate wine of Orleance, / That never came neer the brewers of England.

1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 464-465

From this same Head, this Fountain-head divine,For different Palates springs a different Wine!In which no Tricks, to strengthen, or to thin ’em—Neat as imported—no French Brandy in em’—

1756, David Garrick, Catharine and Petruchio‎, London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, Prologue

At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used ‘neat.’

1932, Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pastime, New York: Cornerstone Library, 1965

Why without telling the least title of Falshood, within the space of the last Week’s Play, the Gains of Count Cog, really amounted to no less than Twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling neat Money.

1720, William Bond, chapter 4, in The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, London: E. Curll, pages 55–56

Dr. Swift […] says, in his short view of the state of Ireland, that the whole cash of that kingdom amounted to 500,000 l. that out of this they remitted every year a neat million to England, and had scarce any other source to compensate themselves from […]

1752, David Hume, Political Discourses‎, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson, Discourse 5, page 81

It may be said, that the increase of the tax is an uncompensated reduction of the neat income of the landlord […]

1793, John Brand, The Alteration of the Constitution of the House of Commons, and the Inequality of the Land-Tax, Considered Jointly‎, London: J. Evans, Section III, p. 52

"You can tell that Rory has had this type of talent in him for some time now, and to see him putting it together is pretty neat to see."

2011 June 20, Phil Mickelson (being quoted), “US Open: Jack Nicklaus tips Rory McIlroy for greatness”, in BBC News

What is the neat weight of 4 hogsheads of tobacco, each weighing 10cwt. 3qrs. 10lb. gross; — tare 100lb. per hdd.?

1824, Stephen Pike, The Teachers' Assistant: Or a System of Practical Arithmetic, page 97

Who both by his calfe, & his lambe wil be known,may well kill a neate and a shepe of his owne.And he that wil reare up a pyg in his house,hath cheaper his bacon, and sweter his souse.

1557 February 13, Thomas Tusser, “Januarye”, in A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie., London: […] Richard Tottel; republished London: Reprinted for Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, stanza 54

Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only commendable / In a neat's tongue dried.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

[…] he’s a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]

Sturdy he was, and no less able,Then Hercules to clense a Stable;As great: Drover, and as greatA Critick too, in Hog or Neat,

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, canto 2, page 51

[…] I sat down by this water in the shade to dine, on a neat’s tongue I had got from good Mrs. Price […]

1756, Thomas Amory, chapter 28, in The Life of John Buncle, Esq.‎, London: J. Noon, page 165

From thence into the open fields he fled,Whereas the Heardes were keeping of their neatAnd shepheards singing to their flockes, that fed,

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 467

And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calfAre all call’d neat.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

Thou on a Hillock thou may singUnto a handsome ShepardlingOr to a Girlie (that keeps the Neat)With breath more sweat than Violet.The spelling has been modernized.

1648, Robert Herrick, “(please specify the poem)”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […]; republished as Henry G. Clarke, editor, Hesperides, or Works both Human and Divine, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: H. G. Clarke and Co., […], 1844,