Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Subtly cruel or malicious; spiteful: a catty remark.
- adj. Catlike; stealthy.
- n. Any of various units of weight used in Southeast Asia, especially a Chinese measure equal to 500 grams (approximately 1.1 pounds).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The name given by foreigners to the Chinese kin or pound. The value of the catty was fixed by the East India Company in 1770 at 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois. The usual Chinese weight is 1.325 pounds; that fixed by the Chinese custom-house in 1858 is 1.3316 pounds; that of the royal mint at Peking is 1.348 pounds. The name is also given in different localities to slightly different weights.
Wiktionary
- adj. informal, of a person or remark With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy, or upset.
- adj. informal Resembling or characteristic of a cat.
- n. A (unit of) weight used in China, generally standardized as half a kilogram.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An East Indian Weight of 11/3 pounds.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. marked by or arising from malice
- n. any of various units of weight used in southeastern Asia (especially a Chinese measure equal to 500 grams)
Etymologies
- From Malay kati, from the Chinese 斤 (Mandarin: 'jīn'). (Wiktionary)
- Malay kati. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The girls in this school, I thought, gave the word catty a new meaning.”
“Ros-Lehtinen, who attended a White House function Monday, used the word catty in reference to late-night tweet.”
“But it's just as well to tell Marie, so that in case Idina should do something -- one of those things women call 'catty' -- she'd be prepared.”
“They criticize aspects of the scientists 'behavior, which they basically call catty and unprofessional, but the science is sound.”
“Nikki Haley Wants To Drug Test Applicants For Unemployment Benefits Nikki Haley-you're being 'catty' - Was There a Case for War?”
“Best known as the catty assistant in The Devil Wears Prada, Blunt's other royal roles include Princess Isolda andand Catherine Howard in the TV dramas Boudica and Henry VIII.”
“In the ad the announcer refers to Frank as "catty," Boxer as "arrogant," and Pelosi as "in charge.”
The Washington Post: Ad of the day: Angle goes after Obama ahead of campaign visit
“Girls have earned the cultural labels of being "catty" or even being "meaner" than boys.”
“Carlson, who says he has withheld many "catty" personal comments, calls the out-of-context charge "a red herring designed to draw attention away from the fact that they were coordinating on behalf of Barack Obama.”
The Washington Post: Getting the message on Journolist's controversial postings
“Trying to think up some "catty" comments, but "Memories" is somehow stuck in my head.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘catty’.
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I Feel Just Beastly
Ailments with animal attachments. Okay, some are just made up ical...
swine flu, bird flu, mad cow disease, deer tic, cat scratch fever, horse sense, hens teeth, batty, squirrely, snake eyes, dog tired, bug eyed and 14 more...
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capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Special Beasts
I'm looking for compounds or phrases where the character of an animal is essential to the meaning, yet the term is usable in general conversation.
scapegoat, bull market, sacred cow, bear market, hangdog, cat o' nine tails, clothes horse, mousey, donkey drop, black sheep, horseplay, ducks and drakes and 94 more...
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vinyl's Words
deliverator, finna, metric fuckton, fag, hyphy, ginormous, sacrilicious, fantabulous, macaca, n-word, pterodactyl, genious and 560 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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Sassypants
The qualities of The Diva. Social skills, playful yet bitchy.
churlish, bitchy, cantankerous, peevish, disagreeable, quarrelsome, venomous, grumpy, groachy, crabby, dismal, snappish and 143 more...
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The Measure of Man
Unusual, arcane, or obscure units of measure
cable, cabot, bushel, cade, caliper, callipic cycle, metonic cycle, cunit, air watt, ale gallon, allergy unit, amber and 228 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3251 more...
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snarlie
grumpy words
snarly, peevish, grumpy, fractious, persnickety, scathing, shirty, stroppy, tetchy, waspish, grumble, peeve and 28 more...
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Units
Oddball units of measurement that catch my fancy
See also reesetee's excellent list The Measure of Man@, apgar score, amphora, amber, aeon, animal unit, degree twaddle (°tw), degree lovibond (°l), degree macmichael..., degree dornic (°d), degree soxhlet-he..., degree therner (°th) and 32 more...
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Kittie
Taurus, Jupiter, luxury, cat, feline, material, earth, sand, turquoise, independence, stability, indulgence and 66 more...
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Animal Magnetism
Adjectives derived from animal names but used to describe people
dogged, foxy, bearish, bullish, pigheaded, birdbrained, catty, wolfish, bullheaded, horsy, weaselly, squirrelly and 39 more...
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When I think about girls . . .
it's hard to come up with just one word . . .
suitable, sultry, emotional, bodacious, bewitching, lady, catty, baroness, blissful, trollop, vamp, obsession and 52 more...
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so near and yet so far
words that differ by only one letter, but which have quite different meanings
deadliness, headlines, grave, rave, grace, grape, graze, grate, gravy, bother, formication, fornication and 12 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for catty.
reesetee In China and southeast Asia, a weight equal to about 1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) avoirdupois.
Mar 28, 2007