Puppy

noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A young dog, especially before sexual maturity (12–18 months)
  2. 2
    a young dog wordnet
  3. 3
    A young rat.
  4. 4
    an inexperienced young person wordnet
  5. 5
    A young seal.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A dog with a youthful appearance, or any dog.
  2. 7
    A woman’s breast. plural-normally, slang

    "Unclasp your bra and set those puppies free."

  3. 8
    A (generic) thing; particularly something that is a nuisance; a sucker. informal

    "I have another two dozen of these puppies to finish before I can go home."

  4. 9
    A conceited and impertinent person, especially a young man. dated, derogatory

    "I found my place taken by an ill-bred, awkward puppy with a money bag under each arm."

Verb
  1. 1
    To bring forth whelps or give birth to pups. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
puppupwhelpbandogbeaubeau brummel

Example

More examples

"The puppy licked her on the cheek."

Etymology

From earlier puppie (“a woman's pet dog”), of uncertain origin, but probably from Middle English *puppee, *poupee, from Old French poupée, popée (“a doll; puppet”). More at puppet. Mostly displaced native Middle English whelp (“puppy”), from Old English hwelp, whence Modern English whelp and whelpie.

Related phrases

Hush Puppiesbumble puppycommon mud puppycommon mudpuppydog puppyforest puppyhush puppymud puppyorange puppyporta-puppypuppy dogpuppy dog eyes

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