catty

From cat +‎ -y. Compare Dutch kattig (“catty”); in sense “hostility”, see catfight.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæti/, [ˈkʰæɾi]

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æti
• Homophones: caddie, caddy (in some dialects)

catty (comparative cattier, superlative cattiest)

1. (informal, of a person or remark) With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy, or upset, particularly among women.
2. (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a cat.

   a catty smell

• (spiteful): bitchy (derogatory), cattish, malicious, nasty, snide, spiteful

• catfight

• (hostility, especially between women): handbags, handbags at dawn, the handbags come out, meow

From Malay kati, from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi).

• cattee, kati
• katti, katty (both obsolete)

catty (plural catties or cattys)

1. A (unit of) weight used in China, generally standardized as half a kilogram.
   • 1699, Captain William Dampier, A new voyage round the world, Volume 1:

     16 Mess, make a Tale, which here is 20 s. English, 5 Tale make a Bancal, a weight so called, and 20 Bancal make a Catty, another weight.

   • 1847, Robert Montgomery Martin, China; Political, Commercial, and Social, volume 2, James Madden, page 124:

     Transparent yellow pieces are the best; the price is from eight to fourteen dollars per catty, according to size and quality.

   • 2009, Huaiyin Li, Village China Under Socialism and Reform: A Micro-History, 1948-2008, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 94:

     To limit team members' consumption, it issued food stamps to the villagers and allowed everyone to eat one catty of rice a day.

catty (plural catties)

1. (slang) A catapult.
   • 2009, Sheldon Arensen, The Carjackers, page 43:

     “Give me your slingshot, and I'll let you have it back after school this afternoon,” she said firmly. […] I stuck the 'catty' into my back pocket and ran outside to meet the others.

   • 2017, David Cooper, Christiaan Barnard: The Surgeon Who Dared:

     You could also keep a tennis ball and a frog, or a catapult and a frog, but not all three together. I know because I tried it. The frog got a bit squashed between the ball and the handle of the catty.