catty
catty Lexical Profile
catty Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Deliberately hurtful, spiteful, or slyly malicious in one's remarks or behavior.
"She grew tired of the catty remarks circulating among her coworkers in the break room."
Relating to, resembling, or characteristic of a cat, especially in being agile, stealthy, or quiet.
"The gymnast landed with a light, catty grace on the balance beam."
• noun
A traditional unit of weight used in China and Southeast Asia, equal to 16 taels or approximately 600 grams (about 1.33 pounds).
"The vendor weighed out two catties of dried mushrooms on a brass balance scale."
• Rhymes for catty
Word Origin & Etymology
As an adjective, it derives from 'cat' plus the suffix '-y', originally meaning 'resembling a cat' before shifting in the late 19th century to describe sly, spiteful remarks. The noun denoting an Asian unit of weight is an unrelated homograph borrowed from Malay 'kati'.