potty
1 Americanadjective
-
pottier,
comparative
-
pottiest
superlative
-
Chiefly British Informal. slightly insane; eccentric.
-
British. paltry; trifling; petty.
noun
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potties
plural
-
a seat of reduced size fitting over a toilet seat, for use by a small child.
-
a small metal pot fitting under a potty-chair.
-
Baby Talk. a toilet.
adjective
-
foolish or slightly crazy
-
trivial or insignificant
-
very keen (about)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of potty1
First recorded in 1855–60; pot 1 + -y 1
Origin of potty2
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:
Mr. Bennett is potty about footie, and like all mildly deranged fans of the Beautiful Game he sees it as transcending the boundaries of mere sport.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Asked if the policy was a "potty gimmick", Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland: "No, it's about helping people who are really struggling in our society today."
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
For example, when working on an episode about potty training, she took a class from two potty training experts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
This process was clearly going to involve more than potty training—although that proved harder than I expected, too.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025
I think that’s her way of telling me she needs to potty.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
The center distributed potties and strollers from a stockpile of donations.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
The agency contracted with Collins Aerospace to provide the latest model; the company also worked on the shuttle potties.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
Winter, I like where you're going here -- right down to the porta potties.
From Fox News ● Aug. 27, 2020
Gone are the days when music fans slept in the open air, survived on junk food and put up with smelly porta potties.
From Reuters ● Aug. 8, 2019
Serious pancake eaters wouldn’t care what happened to the police car, or even about the gators in the portable potties.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
They'd never gone pottier than they did that week, when the Scots won at Wembley, then collapsed the goalposts and stole half the turf in celebration.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2021
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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.
