pets

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of pet.

   Several apartment buildings now allow small pets with a deposit.

   Exotic pets require specialized diets that ordinary stores rarely stock.

   Note

   Most often the plural counts companion animals, but it can stand for any sense of the singular: pet rocks and pet plants, favorites indulged by a superior, cherished darlings, even separate fits of sulking. The same spelling is also a verb, the present-tense "strokes" form, so "her pets" and "she pets" are told apart only by the word in front.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of pet.

   The toddler gently pets the rabbit while her mother holds it steady.

   He absently pets the horse's neck as he checks the saddle.

   Note

   Here the verb agrees with he, she or it: she pets the dog, but they pet it. Stroking an animal is the everyday meaning. Caressing another person amorously is an informal use. Older uses meant indulging someone, or being peevish and sulking. The archaic ones belong in period prose, not in ordinary speech. The spelling is shared with the plural noun.

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