catty

See also: Catty

English

Etymology 1

From cat +‎ -y. Compare Dutch kattig (“catty”); in sense “hostility”, see catfight.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæti/, (US) [ˈkʰæɾi]

• Audio (Southern England); [-t-]:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æti
• Homophones: caddie (Flapping), caddy (Flapping)

Adjective

catty (comparative cattier, superlative cattiest)

1. (informal, of a person or remark) With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy, or upset, particularly among women.
2. (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a cat.

   a catty smell

Synonyms

• (spiteful): bitchy (derogatory), cattish, malicious, nasty, snide, spiteful

Derived terms

• cattily
• cattiness
• uncatty

 

Related terms

• catfight

Translations

spiteful

• Bulgarian: злобен (bg) (zloben)
• Czech: zlomyslný (cs), škodolibý (cs), nepříjemný (cs)
• Danish: sladrende
• Dutch: kattig (nl)
• Finnish: ilkeä (fi)
• French: rosse (fr), rosserie (fr), méchant (fr)
• German: zickig (de), boshaft (de), gehässig (de), stutenbissig (de)
• Hungarian: sunyi (hu), alattomos (hu), rosszindulatú (hu)
• Italian: malizioso (it)
• Norwegian: spydig
• Russian: зло́бный (ru) (zlóbnyj), озло́бленный (ru) (ozlóblennyj), злой (ru) (zloj)
• Spanish: malicioso (es)
• Swedish: spydig (sv)

resembling or characteristic of a cat

• Czech: kočičí (cs)

See also

• (hostility, especially between women): handbags, handbags at dawn, the handbags come out, meow

Etymology 2

From Malay kati, from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi).

Alternative forms

• cattee, kati
• katti, katty (both obsolete)

Noun

catty (plural catties or cattys)

1. A (unit of) weight used in China, generally standardized as half a kilogram.
   • 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.

   • 2009, Huaiyin Li, Village China Under Socialism and Reform: A Micro-History, 1948-2008, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 94:

     To limit team members' consumption, it issued food stamps to the villagers and allowed everyone to eat one catty of rice a day.

Translations

a unit of weight in China

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 斤 (gan¹)

  Hakka: 斤 (kîn)

  Hokkien: 斤 (zh-min-nan) (kin, kirn, kun)

  Mandarin: 斤 (zh) (jīn)

  Wu: 斤 (¹cin)

• Indonesian: kati (id)
• Japanese: 斤 (ja) (きん, kin)
• Korean: 근(斤) (ko) (geun)
• Malay: kati (ms)
• Russian: ка́тти n (kátti), цзинь (ru) m (czinʹ)
• Thai: มายน (maa yon)
• Vietnamese: cân (vi) (斤)

Etymology 3

Noun

catty (plural catties)

1. (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

• catty-corner
• catty-cornered
• catty-mount