Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Orderly and clean in appearance.
  • adjective Given to keeping things clean and in order.
  • adjective Informal Adequate; satisfactory.
  • adjective Informal Substantial; considerable.
  • intransitive verb To clean or put in order.
  • intransitive verb To make things clean or orderly.
  • noun A decorative protective covering for the arms or headrest of a chair.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Seasonable; opportune; favorable; fit; suitable.
  • Brave; smart; skilful; fine; good.
  • Appropriate or suitable as regards order, arrangement, occasion, circumstances, or the like; becomingly or neatly arrayed or arranged; kept in good order; neat; trim: as, a tidy dress; a tidy and well-furnished apartment.
  • Of neat and orderly habits; disposed to be neat and orderly: as, a tidy person.
  • Moderately or fairly large, great, or important; considerable; respectable; pretty: as, a tidy sum of money.
  • Satisfactory; comfortable; fairly good or well: as, How are you to-day? Tidy.
  • noun A more or less ornamental covering for the back of a chair, the arms of a sofa, or the like, to keep them from becoming soiled.
  • noun A pinafore or apron.
  • To make neat; put in good order: often followed by up: as, to tidy or to tidy up a room.
  • To arrange, dispose, or put things, as dress, furniture, etc., in good or proper order: often with up.
  • noun A small singing bird, perhaps the wren.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The wren; -- called also tiddy.
  • intransitive verb colloq. To make things tidy.
  • noun A cover, often of tatting, drawn work, or other ornamental work, for the back of a chair, the arms of a sofa, or the like.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A child's pinafore.
  • transitive verb To put in proper order; to make neat.
  • adjective obsolete Being in proper time; timely; seasonable; favorable.
  • adjective Arranged in good order; orderly; appropriate; neat; kept in proper and becoming neatness, or habitually keeping things so.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Arranged neatly and in order.
  • adjective Not messy; neat and controlled.
  • adjective informal Generous, considerable.
  • verb To make tidy; to neaten.
  • interjection Wales Expression of positive agreement, usually in reply to a question.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective large in amount or extent or degree
  • adjective marked by order and cleanliness in appearance or habits
  • noun receptacle that holds odds and ends (as sewing materials)
  • adjective (of hair) neat and tidy
  • verb put (things or places) in order

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tidi, in season, healthy, from tide, time; see tide.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From tide (“time”) +‎ -y, originally meaning “timely, seasonable, opportune”.

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