Ditty

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A short, simple verse or song.

    "The Acme mattress ditty has been stuck in my head all day."

  2. 2
    a short simple song (or the words of a poem intended to be sung) wordnet
  3. 3
    A saying or utterance, especially one that is short and frequently repeated.

    "O, too high ditty for my simple rime."

  4. 4
    Ellipsis of ditty bag. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Verb
  1. 1
    To sing; to warble a little tune.

    "Beasts fain would sing; birds ditty to their notes."

Synonyms

All synonyms
albaanaanthemariaart songaubade

Example

More examples

"The first time Mary ever saw Tom, he was wearing a beanie, strumming a ukulele, and singing an Irish ditty."

Etymology

From Middle English dite, ditee, from Old French ditie or dité, from ditier, from Latin dictāre (participle dictatus).

Related phrases

ditty bag

More for "ditty"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.