bitch
Americannoun
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a female dog.
This is the third year in a row that a bitch won first place in the sporting dogs category.
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a female canine generally.
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Slang.
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a malicious, unpleasant, selfish person, especially a woman.
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Older Use. a lewd woman.
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Disparaging and Offensive. any woman.
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Informal. a person, especially a woman (often used as a term of address).
Hey bitches, let's go party!
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Slang.
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a complaint.
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anything difficult or unpleasant.
That test was a real bitch.
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anything memorable, especially something exceptionally good.
You threw one bitch of a party last night.
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Slang: Disparaging. a person who is submissive or subservient to someone, usually in a humiliating way.
Tom is so her bitch—he never questions what she decides.
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Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
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a man who willingly or unwillingly submits to the will and control of a dominant partner in a sexual relationship, especially with another man, as in
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a gay man who is penetrated in anal intercourse, or who assumes a submissive role in a sexual relationship.
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verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
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a female dog or other female canine animal, such as a wolf
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offensive a malicious, spiteful, or coarse woman
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slang a complaint
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slang a difficult situation or problem
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slang a person who acts as a subordinate or slave to another person
verb
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(intr) to complain; grumble
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to behave (towards) in a spiteful or malicious manner
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to botch; bungle
Pop Culture
— The BITCH Manifesto: Classic feminist article (1970) written by Jo Freeman under the pen name Joreen. It reclaimed the word “bitch” as a term of empowerment rather than one of abuse. — Bitch: A feminist magazine commenting on popular culture and media, founded in 1996. —Bitch: The stage name of a politically outspoken female rock vocalist/violinist and actress. — Skinny Bitch: A diet book (2005) written by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. — No One's the Bitch: A book (2009), website, and forum that supports mother and stepmother relationships. Started by Jennifer Newcomb Marine and Carol Marine. —Stitch 'n Bitch: A network of groups of people who knit and crochet.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bitchsimple
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bitchessimple
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have bitchedperfect
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has bitchedperfect
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am bitchingprogressive
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are bitchingprogressive
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is bitchingprogressive
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have been bitchingperfect progressive
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has been bitchingperfect progressive
Past
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bitchedsimple
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had bitchedperfect
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was bitchingprogressive
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were bitchingprogressive
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had been bitchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bitch
First recorded before 1000; Middle English bicche, Old English bicce; cognate with Old Norse bikkja
Explanation
Bitch is a commonly used slang word that is nonetheless vulgar when you throw it at a woman or a man. The word originally meant, and still means, a female dog. This word for a female pooch has evolved to a more common meaning: a woman you don't like. In those cases, a bitch is kind of a female jerk, although feminists would argue that the term often gets unfairly thrown at any strong willed, assertive woman. Many males call each other bitch, too, implying that the other guy is a weakling. Another common use is bitching or to bitch and moan, meaning to complain about something.
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:
Separately, the singer Mina Lioness claimed Lizzo had lifted Truth Hurts' viral lyric, "I just took a DNA test, turns out I'm 100% that bitch", from one of her social media posts.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2025
Horror has a shameful past when it comes to queer people so, yeah, I’m going to celebrate when a “fierce bitch android lady,” as Bailey called M3gan, becomes part of a little girl’s chosen family.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2023
The problem has gotten worse as city folk move in and proceed to do nothing but bitch about country life.
From Slate ● May 14, 2021
“I’ve been a badass bitch before — and I know I can be a badass bitch again.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2021
The prince hadn’t come to dinner, nor was he in the kennels with the bitch and her pups.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
Much of her sophomore album “Vanity” has main character energy, and Lovestory’s “Telenovela,” with its extended metaphors of Barbarella bad bitches, “tragica erotica,” and using “su lengua pa cambiar el canal” is the descriptive centerpiece.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
Learning that Earle “is a lexapro girly too just proves the baddest bitches have crippling anxiety,” one posted in January.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2025
I mean, I knew in this world that female dogs are called bitches, and it’s kind of normal.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2024
Evidence showed between March 2020 and March 2022 a total of 27 litters of puppies were born and up to 28 breeding bitches were kept on the premises.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2023
Even then the rafters still rang with shouts and prayers and curses, the shrieks of terrified horses and the growls of Ramsay’s bitches.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
As Arya reminded Jon when he bitched about Sansa: “I’m defending our family, and so is she.”
From The Guardian ● Apr. 14, 2019
“You have to remember that everyone since the dawn of time has bitched about New York and what it’s become, but nobody owns New York,” Spitz says.
From Time ● Jul. 17, 2014
I once sat through a reading of The Tempest with a playwright who bitched all the way through, saying that Shakespeare isn't any good because his dramatic arc is so bad.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2012
Every time an editor bitched about my drawing a race-relations cartoon," Mauldin says, "I drew eight or ten of them in a row.
From Time Magazine Archive
Not like stubby school crayons you had to press down on till somebody bitched about your breaking them.
From "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
Alarmed that the rail line’s construction could partially collapse the cave, “I started bitching and fighting,” Medellín Legorreta says.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 11, 2023
As a middle-aged queer myself, I remember many of my New York and San Francisco friends bitching that all the butch lesbians were “turning into men.”
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2019
But the other thing is that I don’t want to come across as bitching or complaining, and anything I say could be interpreted as that.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 4, 2019
I’m not so sure; some of the best relationships of my life have revolved around bitching about bosses, creative slacking and covering for each other.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 16, 2018
I missed Katz, missed his puffing and bitching and unflappable fearlessness, hated the thought that I could sit waiting on a rock till the end of time and he would never come.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
