pet

• IPA^(key): /pɛt/, [pʰɛt], [pʰɛʔt]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

Attested since the 1500s in the sense "indulged child" and since the 1530s in the sense "animal companion".[1][2][3] From Scots and dialectal Northern English, of unclear origin. Perhaps a back-formation of petty, pety (“little, small”), a term formerly used to describe children and animals (e.g. pet lambs).[2][3] Alternatively, perhaps a borrowing of Scottish Gaelic peata, from Middle Irish petta, peta (“pet, lap-dog”), of uncertain (possibly pre-Indo-European substrate) origin.[4] Compare peat (“pet, darling, woman”).

The verb is derived from the noun.[2][3]

Picture dictionary
pet
canary canary cat cat dog dog goldfish goldfish guinea pig guinea pig hamster hamster parakeet parakeet parrot parrot

pet (plural pets)

1. An animal kept as a companion.
2. (by extension) Something kept as a companion, including inanimate objects. (pet rock, pet plant, etc.)
   • 2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X:

     Papyrus: This is my brother's pet rock. He always forgets to feed it. As usual, I have to take responsibility.

3. One who is excessively loyal to a superior and receives preferential treatment.
4. Any person or animal especially cherished and indulged; a darling.
   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIX, in Wuthering Heights, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

     At first she sat silent; but that could not last: she had resolved to make a pet of her little cousin, as she would have him to be; and she commenced stroking his curls, and kissing his cheek, and offering him tea in her saucer, like a baby.

   • 1711 January 1 (Gregorian calendar)​, Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele et al.], “Thursday, December 21, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 266; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], volume III, London stereotype edition, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, →OCLC:

     the love of cronies, pets, and favourites

• companion animal

pet (third-person singular simple present pets, present participle petting, simple past and past participle petted or (nonstandard) pet)

1. (transitive) To stroke or fondle (an animal).
2. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To stroke or fondle (another person) amorously.
3. (dated, transitive) To treat as a pet; to fondle; to indulge.

   His daughter was petted and spoiled.

   • 1919 August, P. G. Wodehouse, “Prohibition and the Drama”, in Vanity Fair, page 21:

     […] the American dramatist has had to waste most of his first act elaborately planting the information that his Mister Quex is rich, petted by Society, and altogether more spectacular than the common run of men.

4. (archaic, intransitive) To be a pet.
5. (archaic, intransitive) To be peevish; to sulk.
   • 1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political

     He sure is queasie stomach't that must pet, and puke, at such a trivial circumstance

• (to stroke or fondle an animal): pat, smooth
• (to stroke or fondle amorously): feel up, grope, touch up; see also Thesaurus:fondle
• (to treat as a pet): coddle, cosset; see also Thesaurus:pamper
• (to be peevish): mope, pout

• petting

pet (not comparable)

1. Favourite; cherished; the focus of one's (usually positive) attention.

   a pet child

   The professor seemed offended by the criticism of her pet theory.

   • 1886, Frederic Harrison, The Choice of Books:

     Some young lady's pet curate.

   • 1875, William Conant Church, The Galaxy, page 141:

     Major Butler has a pet grievance and a pet aversion, which he forces on the reader in every chapter, and which becomes at last very wearisome.

   • 1991, Deborah G. Douglas, United States Women in Aviation, 1940-1985, page 9:

     In an interview with Flying magazine, Heberding commented that her pet annoyance was "the reluctance of people generally to accept a woman whether as a pilot or a preflight inspector."

2. Kept or treated as a pet.

   pet rock

Clipping of petulance.

pet (plural pets)

1. A fit of petulance, a sulk, arising from the impression that one has been offended or slighted.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     His genius at this time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his mother a tragedy, in which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, it made her laugh so, that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 105:

     There was something ludicrous, even more, unbecoming a gentleman, in leaving a friend's house in a pet, with the host's reproaches sounding in his ears, to be matched only by the bitterness of the guest's sneering retorts.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Buck Mulligan sat down in a sudden pet.

Clipping of petition.

pet (plural pets)

1. Abbreviation of petition.

Clipping of petal.

pet (plural pets)

1. (Ireland, Tyneside) A term of endearment usually applied to women and children.

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN

• pet coke

• EPT, PTE, Pte, TPE, Tep, ept

pet

1. river

From Latin pēditum. Compare Occitan pet, French pet, Spanish pedo.

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ˈpət/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛt/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈpet/

pet m (plural pets)

1. (colloquial) fart

• petar
• petat
• llufa f

• “pet” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “pet” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from English bed.

pet

1. bed
   • 2010, Ewe Kapasen God, United Bible Societies, →ISBN, Luke 5:24, page 110:

     Iwe upwe pwȧr ngeni kemi pwe mi wor an ewe Noun Aramas manamanen omusano tipis won fonufan. Iwe a apasa ngeni ewe mwan mi mwök, 'Upwe erenuk, kopwe uta, kopwe eki om na pet o feinno non imwom!"

     Therefore I will show you that the Son of Man has the power of forgiving sins on earth. So he said to the sick man, 'I tell you, stand, grab your bed and go to your house!"

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /pɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pet
• Rhymes: -ɛt

pet m (plural petten, diminutive petje n)

1. cap (headwear with a peak at the front)

• → Caribbean Javanese: pèt
• → Indonesian: pet, peci (from the diminutive)
• → Papiamentu: pèchi, petsje (from the diminutive)

pet (comparative petter, superlative petst)

1. (slang) bad, crappy

• naatje pet

• → Papiamentu: pèchi (from the diminutive)

From Old French pet, inherited from Latin pēditum.

• IPA^(key): /pɛ/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophones: pais, pait, paît, paix, paie, paies, pets
• (Quebec, informal) IPA^(key): /pɛt/

pet m (plural pets)

1. (colloquial) fart

• vesse

• péter

• IPA^(key): /pɛt/
• Homophones: pète, pets

pet m (plural pets)

1. (colloquial, nonstandard) Clipping of pétard.

• “pet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Latin pectus.

pet m (plural pets)

1. (anatomy) chest

• sen

From Dutch pet, probably from French toupet. Doublet of peci.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛt̪̚]
• Hyphenation: pèt

pet (plural pet-pet, first-person possessive petku, second-person possessive petmu, third-person possessive petnya)

1. cap (headwear with a peak at the front)

   Hypernym: topi

• “pet” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

pet m (plural pets)

1. (vulgar) fart, gas, flatulence

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /pɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt
• Syllabification: pet

pet m inan (diminutive pecik)

1. (colloquial) cigarette butt

   Synonyms: kiep, niedopałek, ogarek

2. (colloquial, derogatory) cigarette

   Synonyms: cygareta, fajek, fajka, kiep, kopeć, papieros, szlug

• pet in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• pet in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English pet.

• • Homophones: PET, patch

pet m (plural pets)

1. (Brazil, upper class slang) pet (animal kept as a companion)

   Synonyms: animal de estimação (much more common), mascote

• pet shop

• pèz (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Surmiran)
• péz (Sutsilvan)

From Latin pectus.

pet m (plural pets)

1. (Puter, Vallader, anatomy) chest, thorax

• (Rumantsch Grischun) sain
• (Sursilvan) sein
• (Sutsilvan, Surmiran) sagn

From Proto-Slavic *pętь, from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe.

• IPA^(key): /pêːt/, /pêt/

• Audio (Serbia)

  (file)

pȇt (Cyrillic spelling пе̑т)

1. five (5)

• Nouns following the numbers 5-20 are in genitive plural.

From Proto-Slavic *pętь, from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe.

• IPA^(key): /péːt/

pẹ̑t

1. five

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

pet

1. genitive dual/plural of peta

From Proto-Tai *peːtᴰ (“eight”), from Chinese 八 (MC pˠat̚, “eight”). Cognate with Thai แปด (bpɛ̀ɛt), Lao ແປດ (pǣt), Lü ᦶᦔᧆᧈ (ṗaed¹), Tai Dam ꪵꪜꪒ, Shan ပႅတ်ႇ (pèt), Tai Nüa ᥙᥦᥖᥱ (pǎet), Ahom 𑜆𑜢𑜄𑜫 (pit), Bouyei beedt, Zhuang bet.

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [pɛt̚˧˥]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [pɛt̚˦]

pet

1. eight