# kitty

Pronunciation: say "KIT-ee" /ˈkɪti/

## Noun

1. An informal or affectionate word for a cat, especially a pet cat or a kitten; often used by or to children. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A friendly or childish word for a cat or kitten.
   - _Our neighbor's old kitty sleeps on the porch rail every afternoon._
   - _"Here, kitty, kitty!" she called, shaking the bag of treats._
2. A pool of money card players feed from their winnings to pay shared costs such as the room or refreshments; also, any shared fund for joint purposes, or cash set aside for later. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A pot of money that people, such as card players, put together to pay for shared costs or to save for later.
   - _Everyone in the office puts five dollars a week into the kitty for coffee._
   - _At the end of the night the musicians emptied the tip jar into the kitty and split it four ways._
3. A euphemistic or vulgar slang word for the vulva or vagina. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A soft or rude slang word for a woman's private parts.
   - _After the spin class, she groaned that her kitty would never forgive her._
   - _He leaned in and whispered something about her kitty, and she swatted his arm._
4. In card games, the total money available to be won in a round or game; the pot. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In card games, all the money that the winner of a round or game takes.
   - _With a full house on the last hand of poker, she raked in the whole kitty._
   - _With two pairs showing, he pushed the rest of his chips into the kitty._
5. In some card games, an extra hand dealt face down for the highest bidder to use; the widow. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In some card games, extra cards placed face down that the top bidder gets to use.
   - _After winning the bid, she picked up the kitty and discarded three cards._
   - _The dealer set four cards aside as the kitty before dealing out the rest._
6. In bowls, the small, typically white ball that serves as the target; the jack.
   - Simple: In the game of bowls, the small, usually white ball that players aim at.
   - _Her first bowl curled in and came to rest an inch from the kitty._
   - _The skip asked for the kitty to be rolled to the far end of the green._
7. A wren, any bird of the family Troglodytidae, and specifically the Eurasian wren; short for kitty-wren. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: A wren, a kind of bird. It is short for kitty-wren.
8. A place of confinement such as a jail, a prison, or a lockup. *(dialectal, Northern England)*
   - Simple: A jail or prison, or a place where people are locked up.

## Noun

9. A kittiwake, either of two small gulls of the genus Rissa, especially the black-legged kittiwake. *(archaic, UK)*
   - Simple: A kittiwake, a kind of small seagull.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3** — From kitt(en) + the diminutive suffix -y; compare Dutch katje (“kitty”). The sense “vulva, vagina” is probably modelled on the same use of pussy.
**Meanings 2, 4–6** — Where the word comes from is unclear. For the sense used in card games, one possibility is that it was made from kit, meaning a collection of items, plus -y, a suffix that makes something small.
**Meaning 8** — Of uncertain origin; possibly a clipping of the obsolete dialectal kid(cote) (“lockup, prison”) + the diminutive suffix -y.
**Meaning 7** — From Kitty, a diminutive of the female given name Katherine.
**Meaning 9** — A clipping of kitt(iwake) + the diminutive suffix -y.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/kitty (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).