catty
/ˈkæti/US[ˈkʰæɾi]
catty adjective: resembling or characteristic of a cat.
Adjective
catty (comparative cattier, superlative cattiest)
- Resembling or characteristic of a cat.
- catty eyes
- I heard a catty shriek.
- With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy, or upset (particularly in interactions between women).
- The fact is, Mr Carrados, Gertrude is a misfire. It was the surprise of her life (if I said "disappointment" you'd think me catty) when Mark married me, and she didn't set out to be pleasant to the interloper.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
- “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.”2025 August 14, Asha Michelle Wilson, “Anchor Ham Adventure” (7:51 from the start), in The Great North, season 5, episode 19, spoken by Ham Tobin (Paul Rust)
Noun (1)
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.
- 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.1699, Captain William Dampier, A new voyage round the world, Volume 1
- Transparent yellow pieces are the best; the price is from eight to fourteen dollars per catty, according to size and quality.1847, Robert Montgomery Martin, China; Political, Commercial, and Social, volume 2, James Madden, page 124
Noun (2)
catty (plural catties)
- A catapult.
- “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.2009, Sheldon Arensen, The Carjackers, page 43
- 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.2017, David Cooper, Christiaan Barnard: The Surgeon Who Dared
Proper noun capitalized: Catty
Catty
- The borough of Catasauqua in Pennsylvania.
catty meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Malay
catty in Urdu
- بلی جیسا, گربہ خو
catty in Malayalam
- spiteful, evil-intentioned, malicious
- വിരോധമുള്ള, സ്പർദ്ധനിറഞ്ഞ, പകയുള്ള, ദ്രോഹവിചാരമുള്ള, അസമ്മത, വിദ്വിഷ്ട
catty in Kannada
- ಮತ್ಸರದ, ಕೃತ್ರಿಮದ, ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಕಿಚ್ಚಿನ
catty in Malay
- Chinese unit of weight
- kati
More languagesFewer languages
- catty in Indonesian
- kati
- catty in Thai
- มายน maa yon
- catty in Vietnamese
- cân
Synonyms of catty
Forms of catty
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | cattier |
| superlative | cattiest |
| Noun | |
| plural | catties |
| plural | cattys |
| alternative form | cattee |
| alternative form | kati |
| alternative form (obsolete) | katti |
| alternative form (obsolete) | katty |
Origin of catty
From cat + -y. Compare Dutch kattig, which also means “subtly hostile” and is formed the same way (kat + -ig); see also catfight.
From Malay kati, from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi).
Diminutive + -y.
Words formed from catty
Words that rhyme with catty
Questions about catty
- What does catty mean?
- Catty means resembling or characteristic of a cat.
- What is catty in Urdu?
- Catty in Urdu is بلی جیسا, گربہ خو. See Catty meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is catty?
- Catty can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce catty?
- Catty is pronounced /ˈkæti/.
Words near catty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: catty (page history and authors); Catty (page history and authors); catty (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); catty (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); catty (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-catty.wav.
Cite this entry: “catty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.