Kitten
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A young cat, especially before sexual maturity (reached at about seven months).
"It was supposed to have happened thus: the cat had young kittens, and frequently carried them mice, and other animals its prey, and among the rest a young rat: the kittens, not being hungry, played with it, and when the cat came to give suck to the kittens, the rat likewise sucked her."
- 2 young domestic cat wordnet
- 3 A young rabbit, rat, hedgehog, squirrel, fox, beaver, badger, etc.
"The first move at beaver raising in North Dakota had its starting in the fall of 1874, when a kitten beaver was taken out of Mandan Lake by the writer and given to a little Indian girl who then lived with her guardians at Pretty Point near the present village of Sanger, Oliver county."
- 4 A moth of the genus Furcula.
"Two of these formed cocoons in a manner I have not seen before. They were supplied when full-grown with plenty of rotten willow wood, which I have always found a most suitable material for insects using bark or old wood in forming cocoons such as the kittens, Apatele alni, etc., and most made the usual cycle of cocoons on it."
- 5 A term of endearment, especially for a woman. colloquial
"Speak only when spoken to, kitten."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A term of endearment, especially for a woman.; A girlfriend. broadly, colloquial
- 1 To give birth to kittens. intransitive, transitive
"A cat about to kitten, must not be spoken of by its name, but called a witch. (Madagascar.)"
- 2 give birth to kittens wordnet
Example
More examples"Reporter: Did you buy her a kitten?"
Etymology
From Middle English kitoun, kytton, kyton, keton (“kitten”), of obscure origin. Seemingly from, and usually explained as being from, unattested Anglo-Norman *kitoun, *ketun (compare Old French chitoun, cheton, chaton (“kitten”), diminutive of cat, chat (“cat”)); whence Modern French chaton (“kitten”). Similar words of Germanic origin may have reinforced this word; compare English kitling (“kit, kitten”), Low German Kitten (“kitten”), Icelandic kettlingur (“kitten”), Middle English chitte ("whelp, pup", see chit). The idea that kitoun, rather than being of Anglo-Norman origin, was in fact a purely Germanic derivation from one of these words is etymologically problematic, but cannot be definitively ruled out.