pussycat
Americannoun
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pussycats
plural
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a cat; pussy.
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Informal. a person or thing not at all threatening.
a pussycat underneath all his gruffness.
noun
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an informal or child's name for a cat 1
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informal an endearing or gentle person
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pussycat
First recorded in 1795–1805; pussy 1 + cat ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But I begin to wonder: Right now the lyrics are as nonsensical to her as an interspecies romance between and an owl and a pussycat, but that won’t always be the case.
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 2019
In the spirit of the old nursery rhyme she is a "pussycat pussycat who met the Queen" when Her Majesty visited the cathedral in 2013.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2018
She held onto the checked shirt with a pussycat bow she wore at her 1989 trial for smacking a Beverly Hills police officer after he pulled over her Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible for a traffic violation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2018
Next to me, a young woman wearing a hand-knitted pink pussycat ski cap pecked at her phone, desperately seeking a signal.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2017
“Never take advice! Can’t keep still all day, and not being a pussycat, I don’t like to doze by the fire. I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.”
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
“As Alan Carr says, the faithful have got to up the nerve at the banishment table and behave less like pussycats and more like rottweilers,” said TV reporter Siobhan Synnot.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2025
Plus 1940s sipping-at-the-soda-shop starlet crepes in retro prints like rotary dial phones and slinky pussycats, or with judiciously placed rhinestones.
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2017
IT can make engines sound like purring pussycats — or growling tigers.
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2016
The food makers have found, moreover, that women shoppers are as finicky as pussycats about buying pet food; supermarkets now offer her some 124 canned, dry or semi-moist varieties from which to choose.
From Time Magazine Archive
All this delighted the girl, for she was especially fond of pussycats, although her invalid mother did not like them and had always declared she "would not have a cat in the house."
From Dot and Tot of Merryland by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
