kitty

[kit-ee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR kitty ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural kit·ties.

a kitten.

a pet name for a cat.

Origin of kitty

First recorded in 1710–20; kitt(en) + -y²

kitty

[kit-ee]

noun, plural kit·ties.

a pool or reserve of money, often collected from a number of persons or sources and designated for a particular purpose specified by the contributors.

Cards.

a pool into which players in a game put a certain amount of their winnings for some special purpose, as to pay for refreshments.
the pot, or a special pot, for the collection of forfeits or payments for certain high hands.
widow(def 2).

Origin of kitty

First recorded in 1815–25; kit¹ + -y²

Kitty

[kit-ee]

noun

a female given name, form of Katherine or Catherine.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for kitty

kitten, cat, pussy

Examples from the Web for kitty

Contemporary Examples of kitty

Forty Years Young: Hello Kitty and the Power of Cute By Julia Rubin, Racked Hello Kitty is everywhere.
The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, Nov 17-23, 2014
William Boot
November 23, 2014
He fell in love with Hello Kitty as a teen when he was going through his goth phase—and she was too.
Explosion of Cute: Inside the Superfan Mania of Hello Kitty Con 2014
Sarah Bay Williams
November 2, 2014
Kitty staggered around the corner to the rear of her building, trying to make it home.
The Myth of the Central Park Five
Edward Conlon
October 19, 2014
That said, Waters has come a long way since the picaresque adventures of Nan and Kitty.
Sarah Waters’s New Novel Rewrites the Rules of Love
Lucy Scholes
September 20, 2014
But that means about one out of six women in that demographic have never pet the kitty.
C’mon, Ladies, Masturbation Isn’t Just for Bad Girls
Emily Shire
June 19, 2014

Historical Examples of kitty

Kitty paused in the hall, playing with the roses in a bowl upon the table.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
In a few minutes Mrs. Reid and Kitty returned with Mr. Winship.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
The doctor motioned me to a table behind the screen of which Kitty had spoken.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
Kitty had come to us; she stood in the doorway, white and shaking.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
Vaguely, between Kitty's sobs, I heard the ticking of a watch.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark

British Dictionary definitions for kitty

kitty

noun plural -ties

a diminutive or affectionate name for a kitten, cat 1

Word Origin for kitty

C18: see kit ³

kitty

noun plural -ties

the pool of bets in certain gambling games

any shared fund of money, etc

(in bowls) the jack

Word Origin for kitty

C19: see kit 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for kitty

n.1

"young cat," 1719, variant of kitten, perhaps influenced by kitty "girl, young woman" (c.1500), originally a pet form of fem. proper name Catherine. Kitty Hawk, N.C., apparently is a mangling of a native Algonquian name; it also has been written as Chicahauk.

n.2

"pool of money in a card game," 1887, probably from kit (n.1), in a sense of "collection of necessary supplies" (1833); but perhaps rather from northern England slang kitty "prison, jail, lock-up" (1825), of uncertain origin.