petting

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of gently stroking or patting an animal.

   A few minutes of petting left the cat purring contentedly.

   Visitors to the petting zoo can feed and stroke the goats.

   Similarstroking, patting, caressing

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of kissing, stroking, and similar sexual touching of another person.

   Heavy petting was as far as the young couple was willing to go.

   The counselor discussed where petting ends and intercourse begins.

   Similarnecking, fondling, caressing, foreplay

   Note

   The same word serves for a cat and for a lover, so the surrounding words carry the meaning. In the sexual sense the stock phrase is heavy petting, which marks touching that goes beyond kissing. The verb behind it is informal and works with or without an object: a couple can be petting, or one person can pet another. Keep it out of contexts where the animal sense would be expected.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of pet.

   The toddler was petting the rabbit when it hopped away.

   Petting the horse calmed her nerves before the ride.

   Note

   The final t doubles before the ending, so pet becomes petting, and this one form serves every meaning of the verb. Usually it is a hand on an animal, but it can be amorous, either with an object or without one (a couple petting in the back row). It can also be the dated sense of indulging someone, or the archaic sense of sulking. Only context tells you which pet is meant.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The act of indulging someone or treating them as a favorite.

   The constant petting of the firstborn caused resentment among the siblings.

   Years of petting had left her unable to handle criticism.

   Similarpampering, coddling, indulgence, spoiling, favoritism

   Oppositeneglect

   Note

   Here the affection is a reward. In Louisa May Alcott's Good Wives (1869), a young man who has studied himself to a skeleton all week insists that he "deserves petting, and ought to get it": indulgence as something earned. The verb behind this sense, to treat as a pet, is now dated. Today the noun tends to suggest favoritism or spoiling rather than simple fondness.

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