Word.ws English Dictionary

pettie

pettie is the diminutive of pet.

Meaning of pet

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
  2. (broadly) Something kept as a companion, including inanimate objects.
    • pet plant, pet rock
  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

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...

Noun (3)

pet (plural pets)

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

See all 16 meanings of pet

Proper noun capitalized: Pettie

Pettie (plural Petties)

  1. A surname.

Forms of pettie

Noun
pluralpetties
Proper noun
pluralPetties

Origin of pettie

From pet + -ie.

Questions about pettie

What does pettie mean?
Pettie means a surname.
What is pettie the diminutive of?
Pettie is the diminutive of pet.
What part of speech is pettie?
Pettie is a proper noun.

Words near pettie in the dictionary

  1. petticoating
  2. petticoatless
  3. petticoatlike
  4. petticoats
  5. Petticrew
  6. pettie
  7. pettier
  8. petties
  9. pettiest
  10. Pettifer
  11. pettifog

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pettie (page history and authors); Pettie (page history and authors); pet (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.

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