betty

See also: Betty and Bettý

English

Alternative forms
  • (bar used by thieves to open doors): bettee
  • Betty

Etymology

From Betty (nickname for “Elizabeth”). In thieves’ cant a tool for wrenching locked doors is also called a Bess (from “Elizabeth”) or a Jenny.[1] The “attractive woman” sense may relate to the character Betty Rubble in the cartoon The Flintstones.[2]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bɛti/
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛti

Noun

betty (plural betties)

  1. (slang) A short bar used by thieves to wrench doors open; a jimmy. [from 17th century]
    • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “The Preface”, in Lewis Baboon Turned Honest, and John Bull Politician. Being the Fourth Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC:
      No modern Lycæum vvill ever equal thy Glory, […] deſcribing the povverful Betty, or the artful Picklock, […]
  2. (slang) A picklock, skeleton key; a tool for opening locks. [from 18th century]
    • 1958, Will Thomas, To Kingdom Come, page 161:
      After a quick meal at a tea shop, we found ourselves in the hallway at the Midland Hotel, where he removed a skeleton key, or “betty” as he called it, from his pocket and inserted it in the keyhole. […] Once they were out of sight, I fumbled about with the betty for a few moments before the lock finally clicked open.
  3. (archaic, derogatory) A man who performs tasks that traditionally belong to a woman; (originally) an effeminate or gay man. [from 17th century]
  4. (US, archaic) A pear-shaped bottle covered with straw, in which olive oil is sometimes brought from Italy; a Florence flask. [17th to 19th century]
    • 1841, Acts and Resolutions Passed at the First Session of the Twenty-Seventh Congress of the United States:
      On olive oil in casks, twenty cents per gallon; olive salad oil in bottles or betties, thirty per centum ad valorem
  5. A baked dessert made with alternating layers of sweetened fruit and buttered bread crumbs. [from 19th century]
    • 2021 November, “Apple-Almond Brave Betty”, in Midwest Living‎:
      A pie-size betty is traditional, but if you like, assemble the recipe in individual ovenproof ramekins.
  6. (slang, slightly pejorative) An attractive woman; a babe. [from 20th century]
    • 1995, Amy Heckerling, Clueless, spoken by Cher (Alicia Silverstone):
      Isn't my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972. Wasn't my Mom a betty? She died when I was just a baby. A fluke accident during a routine liposuction. I don't remember her, but I like to pretend she still watches over me.

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Verb

betty (third-person singular simple present betties, present participle bettying, simple past and past participle bettied)

  1. To pick a lock, to open with a betty. [from 19th century]
    • 1976, Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery, page 185:
      “Well then,” he said. “Let’s say you can betty the lock, hang on a rope, and break the drum, and then lock up again with nobody the wiser. How do I get on in the first place, past the Scots jack, with his sharp cool?”
    • 2013, Zack Wentz, “Simplicity itself”, in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, volume 10, page 161:
      The forty quid! Gone! ’Ow could she ’ave gotten in there? The peter ain’t broke, no sign of it bein’ bettied, and I the only one w’ the key.
  2. (archaic) To be overly attentive to someone or something.
    • 1877 August 16, Julia Dartman, “Aunty Di”, in The Youth’s Companion, page 1:
      “I’m perfectly well, thank you, Miss Hester,” she said, coldly. “I detest being bettied.”
    • 1897, W.H. Rudd, “Johnny cakes”, in The Poultry Monthly, volume XIX, page 371:
      If anything on earth is reprehensible in a man and disgusting to a woman, it is to have said man hen-hussying and bettying about the kitchen
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:betty.

References
  1. “betty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  2. Jonathon Green (2024) “betty”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
  • 1989, Joan Hughes, Australian Words and Their Origins (page 39)

Further reading
  • (dessert): Meta Given's Encyclopedia of Modern Cooking, J.G. Ferguson and Associates, Chicago, 1952, pages 726-727.

Anagrams
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