adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A fish of species Scatophagus tetracanthus.

Adjective

1. 1
   Scatterbrained; flighty. Britain, Ireland, slang
2. 2
   Showery; rainy. dialectal
3. 3
   Messy; filthy; disgusting. UK, slang

Adjective

1. 1
   lost in thought; showing preoccupation wordnet
2. 2
   lacking sense or discretion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

absentabsentmindedabsentmindedabstractedafrican scatrattlebrained

Etymology

Etymology 1

Shortening of Scatophagus, the genus name

Etymology 2

From scat + -y; see scat (“brief shower of rain”).

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