catty
See also: Catty
English
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From cat + -y. Compare Dutch kattig (“catty”); in sense “hostility”, see catfight.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈkæti/, (US) [ˈkʰæɾi]
Audio (Southern England); [-t-]: (file) - Rhymes: -æti
- Homophones: caddie (Flapping), caddy (Flapping)
Adjective
[edit]catty (comparative cattier, superlative cattiest)
- (informal, of a person or remark) With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy, or upset, particularly among women.
- 2025 August 14, Asha Michelle Wilson, “Anchor Ham Adventure” (7:51 from the start), in The Great North[1], season 5, episode 19, spoken by Ham Tobin (Paul Rust):
- “So leave your umbrellas at home 'cause we're gonna be drier than my favorite varietal of white wine, pinot gris.” “Hmm. Interesting. According to my research, precipitation is a-coming.” “So Harry's wrong?” “I don't want to be a catty bitch, but kind of, yeah.” “Meow, Ham.”
- (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a cat.
- a catty smell
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]spiteful
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See also
[edit]- (hostility, especially between women): handbags, handbags at dawn, the handbags come out, meow
Etymology 2
[edit]From Malay kati, from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi).
Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]catty (plural catties or cattys)
- A (unit of) weight used in China which is metricated in Mainland China as exactly 0.5 kg, and approximately 0.6 kg for other places.
- 1699, Captain William Dampier, A new voyage round the world, Volume 1:
- 16 Mess, make a Tale, which here is 20 s. English, 5 Tale make a Bancal, a weight so called, and 20 Bancal make a Catty, another weight.
- 1847, Robert Montgomery Martin, China; Political, Commercial, and Social, volume 2, James Madden, page 124:
- Transparent yellow pieces are the best; the price is from eight to fourteen dollars per catty, according to size and quality.
- 1971 October 21 [1971 October 11], “Hupeh Cotton Production”, in Daily Report: People's Republic of China, volume I, number 204, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Wuhan Hupeh Provincial Service, translation of original in Mandarin, →ISSN, →OCLC, People's Republic of China: Central-South Region, page D 3:
- The 130,000 mou of cotton fields in (Pailichou) district of Chihchiang County have produced 17 million catties of cotton seed, and 2.5 million catties of ginned cotton have been sold to the state.
Translations
[edit]Chinese unit of weight
Etymology 3
[edit]Noun
[edit]catty (plural catties)
- (slang) A catapult.
- 2009, Sheldon Arensen, The Carjackers, page 43:
- “Give me your slingshot, and I'll let you have it back after school this afternoon,” she said firmly. […] I stuck the 'catty' into my back pocket and ran outside to meet the others.
- 2017, David Cooper, Christiaan Barnard: The Surgeon Who Dared:
- You could also keep a tennis ball and a frog, or a catapult and a frog, but not all three together. I know because I tried it. The frog got a bit squashed between the ball and the handle of the catty.
See also
[edit]Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æti
- Rhymes:English/æti/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English informal terms
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms derived from Malay
- English terms derived from Tamil
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English slang
- Hong Kong English
- en:Units of measure
- en:Personality