Word.ws English Dictionary

bettied

bettied is the simple past and past participle of betty.

Meaning of betty

Verb

betty (third-person singular simple present betties, present participle bettying, simple past and past participle bettied)

  1. To pick a lock, to open with a betty.
    • “Well then,” he said. “Let’s say you can betty the lock, hang on a rope, and break the drum, and then lock up again with nobody the wiser. How do I get on in the first place, past the Scots jack, with his sharp cool?”1976, Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery, page 185
  2. (archaic) To be overly attentive to someone or something.
    • “I’m perfectly well, thank you, Miss Hester,” she said, coldly. “I detest being bettied.”1877 August 16, Julia Dartman, “Aunty Di”, in The Youth’s Companion, page 1

See all 10 meanings of betty

Questions about bettied

What is bettied the simple past and past participle of?
Bettied is the simple past and past participle of betty.

Words near bettied in the dictionary

  1. betther
  2. Betti
  3. Betti number
  4. Betti numbers
  5. Bettie
  6. bettied
  7. betties
  8. Bettin
  9. bettin'
  10. Bettina
  11. Bettine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bettied (page history and authors); betty (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “bettied.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bettied. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.