Word.ws English Dictionary

pet

/pɛt/

pet noun: an animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use. Also the abbreviation of petition.

pet: an animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or...
Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

pet (plural pets)

  1. An animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.
    • family pet, pet cat, pet dog, pet store
    • My dog Fido has been a loyal pet for ten years.
  2. (broadly) Something kept as a companion, including inanimate objects.
    • pet plant, pet rock
    • Papyrus: This is my brother's pet rock. He always forgets to feed it. As usual, I have to take responsibility.2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X
  3. One who is excessively loyal to a superior and receives preferential treatment.
  4. Any person or animal especially cherished and indulged; a darling.
    • At first she sat silent; but that could not last: she had resolved to make a pet of her little cousin, as she would have him to be; and she commenced stroking his curls, and kissing his cheek, and offering him tea in her saucer, like a baby.1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIX, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC
    • the love of cronies, pets, and favourites1710 December 31 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele et al.], “Wednesday, December 21, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 266; republished in [Richard Steele]...

Verb (1)

pet (third-person singular simple present pets, present participle petting, simple past pet or (childish) petted, past participle petted or pet)

  1. (transitive) To stroke or fondle (an animal).
    • I really love to pet cute puppies.
    Synonyms:
    pat, smooth
  2. (informal, intransitive, transitive) To stroke or fondle (another person) amorously.
    • We started petting each other the moment we were alone.
    • So we kissed + petted for about 15 mins. + he still wasn't hard, altho he acted like he was enjoying himself.1973 September 18, Lou Sullivan, Diary
  3. (dated, transitive) To keep or treat (an animal) as a pet.
    • Deer are often tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed by all Malays, that it is very natural they should endeavour to introduce them into the remote islands in which they settled, and whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for their subsistence.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 140
  4. (dated, transitive) To treat (someone) as a pet; to fondle; to indulge.
    • His daughter was petted and spoiled.
    • […] the American dramatist has had to waste most of his first act elaborately planting the information that his Mister Quex is rich, petted by Society, and altogether more spectacular than the common run of men.1919 August, P. G. Wodehouse, “Prohibition and the Drama”, in Vanity Fair, page 21
  5. (archaic, intransitive) To be a pet.
  6. (archaic, intransitive) To be peevish; to sulk.
    • He sure is queasie stomach't that must pet, and puke, at such a trivial circumstance1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political
    Synonyms:
    mope, pout

Adjective

pet (not comparable)

  1. (figuratively) Favourite; cherished; the focus of one's (usually positive) attention.
    • a pet project
    • a pet child
  2. (literally) Kept or treated as a pet.
    • pet rock
  3. (obsolete) Good; ideal.
    • “Now,” said Hands, “look there; there’s a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat's paw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that old ship.”1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

Noun (2)

pet (plural pets)

  1. A fit of petulance, a sulk, arising from the impression that one has been offended or slighted.
    • His genius at this time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his mother a tragedy, in which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, it made her laugh so, that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850...
    • There was something ludicrous, even more, unbecoming a gentleman, in leaving a friend's house in a pet, with the host's reproaches sounding in his ears, to be matched only by the bitterness of the guest's sneering retorts.1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 105

Verb (2)

pet (third-person singular simple present pets, present participle petting, simple past and past participle petted)

  1. To be petulant or upset; to have a problem with.
    • Got suttin' in the glove compartment and I won't pet to use it2019, “Going Through It” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta

Noun (3)

pet (plural pets)

  1. (Geordie, Ireland) A term of endearment usually applied to women and children.

Noun (4) capitalized: PET

PET (countable and uncountable, plural PETs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of polyethylene terephthalate.
    • An effort was made to fit the flexible tube at least 3 mm deep onto the vasculature; (2) for the remaining systems, 3D-printed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) reservoir blocks were manufactured by PrintPlace using FDM technology. The additively manufactured PET reservoir blocks were previously...2022 May 9, Eleni Tsangouri et al., “Reservoir-Vascular Tubes Network for Self-Healing Concrete: Performance Analysis by Acoustic Emission, Digital Image Correlation and Ultrasound Velocity”, in...
    Synonyms:
    PETE
  2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of positron emission tomography.
    • He [Rob Beanlands] is a founding director of the National Cardiac PET Centre, the first facility in Canada dedicated to the use of PET (positron-emission tomography) as a non-invasive cardiac diagnostic tool. PET technology can help determine whether areas of the heart muscle are receiving enough...2024 January 19, Elizabeth Payne, “Heart Institute a second family to new CEO […]”, in Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ont.: Postmedia, published 20 January 2024, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
  3. (abbreviation, acronym, countable) Acronym of paired-end tag.
    Synonyms:
    ditag
  4. (abbreviation, acronym, countable, historical) Acronym of personal electronic transactor, a line of personal computers produced by Commodore International.
    • Why is the order of graphical characters in the PETSCII table so seemingly haphazard? The answer is that arrangement was dictated by the PET keyboard design, a hardware-driven decision.2014, Nick Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 225
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of perineal ectopic testis (a rare congenital anomaly of the testis).

Proper noun capitalized: PET

PET

  1. (Canadian, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
    • But Wright takes a rather contrarian position about the impact of emotionally charged Trudeaumania on PET’s astonishing political rise in 1968.2016 November 20, “New books put Trudeaumania in fresh perspective”, in Toronto Star, archived from the original on 07 Aug 2017

Also used as

pet is also the abbreviation of petition.

pet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu

pet in Hindi

an animal kept as a companion
पालतू पशु pāltū paśu

pet in Tamil

an animal kept as a companion
வளர்ப்பு விலங்கு vaḷarppu vilaṅku, செல்லப்பிராணி cellappirāṇi
person or animal especially cherished
செல்லம் cellam

pet in Bengali

পোষ্য

pet in Telugu

పెంపుడు జంతువు
More languagesFewer languages
pet in Malayalam
വളർത്തുമൃഗം
pet in Kannada
ಸಾಕುಪ್ರಾಣಿ
pet in Punjabi
ਪਾਲਤੂ
pet in Arabic
حَيَوَان مَنْزَلِيّ ḥayawān manzaliyy, حَيَوَان أَلِيف ḥayawān ʔalīf
pet in Malay
haiwan peliharaan, binatang manja
pet in Indonesian
hewan peliharaan
pet in Persian
حیوان خانگی heyvân-e xânegi, خانگی xānegi
pet in Thai
สัตว์เลี้ยง sàt-líiang
pet in Vietnamese
thú cưng, vật cưng

Examples of pet in a sentence

  • The professor seemed offended by the criticism of her pet theory.
  • Major Butler has a pet grievance and a pet aversion, which he forces on the reader in every chapter, and which becomes at last very wearisome.1875, William Conant Church, The Galaxy, page 141:
  • In an interview with Flying magazine, Heberding commented that her pet annoyance was "the reluctance of people generally to accept a woman whether as a pilot or a preflight inspector."1991, Deborah G. Douglas, United States Women in Aviation, 1940-1985, page 9:
  • But these digital currencies[…] have now become a pet project of the US administration and a hot topic in corporate boardrooms.2025 July 5, Philip Stafford, Akila Quinio, “Stablecoins begin to enter the mainstream with backing from Trump administration”, in FT...

All 40 example sentences with pet

Synonyms of pet

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pet

Forms of pet

Noun
pluralpets
pluralPETs
Verb
third-person singular presentpets
present participlepetting
pastpet
past childishpetted
past participlepetted
past participlepet
pastpetted

Past tense of pet: pet or petted

Plural of pet: pets

Origin of pet

Originally northern dialectal, from Scots pet (“an animal that has been tamed and is kept as a pet; a darling or favourite; a petted or spoiled child”), probably from Scottish Gaelic peata (“pet, tamed animal, spoiled child”), from Middle Irish petta, peta (“pet, lap-dog”), of uncertain origin, possibly from a pre-Indo-European substrate. Compare also peat (“pet, darling, woman”), which is likely not related. The verb is derived from the noun.

Clipping of petulance.

Clipping of petition.

Words formed from pet

Phrases with pet

15 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with pet

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pet

What does pet mean?
Pet means an animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.
What is pet in Hindi?
Pet in Hindi is पालतू पशु (pāltū paśu). See Pet meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pet in a sentence?
The professor seemed offended by the criticism of her pet theory.
What part of speech is pet?
Pet can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pet?
Pet is pronounced /pɛt/.
What is the plural of pet?
The plural of pet is pets.

Words near pet in the dictionary

  1. pestres
  2. pestring
  3. pests
  4. pesty
  5. pesäpallo
  6. pet
  7. pet carrier
  8. pet carriers
  9. pet cemeteries
  10. pet cemetery
  11. pet coke

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pet (page history and authors); PET (page history and authors); pet (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pet (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pet (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pet (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pet (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-pet.ogg.

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