a young cat: occasionally applied to the young of some other small animals
Origin of kitten
Middle English kitoun from Old French chitoun, variant, variety of chaton, diminutive of chat, cat to give birth to (kittens)
kitten
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"kitten." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/kitten>.
APA Style
kitten. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/kitten
kitten
noun
- A young cat.
- One of the young of various other small felines and of certain other mammals, such as beavers.
intransitive verb
kit·tened, kit·ten·ing, kit·tensTo bear kittens.
Origin of kitten
Middle English kitoun probably from Old North French caton diminutive of cat cat from Late Latin cattusTHE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Cite this page
MLA Style
"kitten." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/kitten>.
APA Style
kitten. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/kitten
Noun
(plural kittens)
Verb
(third-person singular simple present kittens, present participle kittening, simple past and past participle kittened)
- To give birth to kittens.
Origin
From Middle English kiton, kitoun, kyton (“kitten”), diminutive of cat (“cat”). First element probably from Middle English kiteling (“kitten, kit”), from Old Norse ketlingr (“kitten”), or possibly from Anglo-Norman *kiton, Old French chiton, diminutive of cat, chat (“cat”), from Late Latin cattus. Compare Low German kitten (“kitten”). More at kitling, cat, -en.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"kitten." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/kitten>.
APA Style
kitten. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/kitten
Sentence Examples
- "Very well, I won't touch it," decided the kitten; "but you must keep it away from me, for the smell is very tempting."
- The kitten did not reply.
- The kitten will not come.
- "Do you mean my kitten must be put in a grave?" asked Dorothy.
- "I'm not cruel," replied the kitten, yawning.
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