zootyhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooty_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezooty, adj.
Revised 2017

zootyadjective

slang (originally U.S.).
  1. 1.
    1942–
    That is in the style of a zoot suit (zoot suit n. 1).
    1. 1942
      Coats are loose and baggy although not zooty.
      Thomasville (Georgia) Times-Enterprise 24 September 5/4
    2. 1946
      Colored kids..work on their dungarees, pegging the legs till they're real sharp and zooty.
      M. Mezzrow & B. Wolfe, Really Blues iv. xvi. 313
    3. 1974
      The suits were..the zooty type—that's the American style of suiting with a straw hat.
      Listener 8 August 166/1
    4. 2014
      Female counterparts..wore similarly zooty jackets with a short skirt or even pegged trousers.
      J. Blanco F. et al., Clothing & Fashion 343/2
  2. 2.
    1943–
    Fashionably or stylishly dressed; smart, stylish, ‘cool’.
    1. 1943
      Mighty zooty lads in this here outfit.
      Sheppard Field Texacts 17 April 8/1
    2. 1952
      What the zootie character and the dude have in common is an overfastidious regard for clothing.
      American Speech vol. 27 20
    3. 1964
      Her lover, too, with long jaws and zooty sideburns.
      S. Bellow, Herzog 240
    4. 2004
      Bearded, bereted Americans trying to look like Frenchmen and zooty, gum-chewing Frenchmen trying to look like Americans.
      Independent 31 December 27/4

Originally published as part of the entry for zoot, n.

zooty, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zooty, adj. was last modified in July 2023.