pet

• IPA^(key): /pɛt/, [pʰɛt], [pʰɛʔ], [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]

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, […], London stereotype edition, volume III, London: I. Walker and Co.;  […], 1822, →OCLC:

     the love of cronies, pets, and favourites

     The spelling has been modernized.

• companion animal

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

1. (transitive) To stroke or fondle (an animal).

   I really love to pet cute puppies.

2. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To stroke or fondle (another person) amorously.

   We started petting each other the moment we were alone.

   • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     We kissed & petted for about 15 mins & he still wasn't hard, altho he acted like he was enjoying himself.

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

• pet the kitty
• petting

pet (not comparable)

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

   a pet project

   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."

   • 2002 August 2, Geoffrey Macnab, “'The rape had to be disgusting to be useful'”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Discussing a favourite book, JW Dunne's An Experiment with Time—a 1927 study by an English aeronautical engineer who developed his own pet theories about dreams, perception and reality—he [Gaspar Noé] sounds like an earnest young philosophy student.

   • 2025 July 5, Philip Stafford, Akila Quinio, “Stablecoins begin to enter the mainstream with backing from Trump administration”, in FT Weekend, page 11:

     But these digital currencies […] have now become a pet project of the US administration and a hot topic in corporate boardrooms.

3. (literally) Kept or treated as a pet.

   pet rock

4. (obsolete) Good; ideal.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     “Now,” said Hands, “look there; there’s a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat's paw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that old ship.”

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, published 2005, page 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.

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

1. To be petulant or upset; to have a problem with.
   • 2019, “Going Through It” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta:

     Got suttin' in the glove compartment and I won't pet to use it

Clipping of petition.

pet (plural pets)

1. Abbreviation of petition.

Clipping of petal.

pet (plural pets)

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

• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “pet”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.

• pet coke (etymologically unrelated)
• pet-en-l'air (etymologically unrelated)
• red vet pet (etymologically unrelated)

• EPT, PTE, Pte, TPE, Tep, ept

pet

1. river

Inherited from Latin pēditum. Compare Occitan pet, French pet, Spanish pedo.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈpɛt]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈpət]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈpet]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

pet m (plural pets)

1. (colloquial) fart

• llufa f

• “pet”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “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

Declension of pet
uninflected	pet
inflected	pette
comparative	petter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		pet	petter	het petst het petste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	pette	pettere	petste
	n. sing.	pet	petter	petste
	plural	pette	pettere	petste
definite		pette	pettere	petste
partitive		pets	petters	—

• naatje pet

Inherited from Old French pet, inherited from Latin pēditum.

• IPA^(key): /pɛ/

  • Audio:

    (file)

  • Homophones: paie, paient, paies, pais, paît, paix, pets
• (Quebec, informal) IPA^(key): /pɛt/
  • Homophones: pète, pètent, pètes, pets

pet m (plural pets)

1. (colloquial) fart

   Synonym: vesse

• péter

See the main lemma.

• IPA^(key): /pɛt/
• Homophones: pète, pètent, pètes, 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.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛt/ [ˈpɛt̪̚]
• Rhymes: -ɛt
• Syllabification: pet

pèt (plural pet-pet)

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

   Hypernym: topi

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

pet

1. romanization of ꦥꦼꦠ꧀

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): /ˈpɛt/

• 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) pet (animal kept as a companion)

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

• 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

Serbo-Croatian numbers ^(edit)

	50
←  4	5	6  →
Cardinal: pet     Ordinal: peti     Multiplier: petostruk     Collective: petoro, petorica     Fractional: petina

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pętь

• IPA^(key): /pêːt/, /pêt/

• Audio (Serbia):

  (file)

pȇt (Cyrillic spelling пе̑т)

1. five (5)

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

• petokraka
• crvena petokraka

Slovene numbers ^(edit)

	50
←  4	5	6  →
Cardinal: pet     Cardinal prefix: pet-     Ordinal: peti     Latinate ordinal: kvintaren     Ordinal prefix: peto-     Number: pet     Digit: petka     Digit place: petica     Adverbial: petič     Krat adverbial: petikrat     Multiplier: peteren     Krat multiplier: petkrat     Fixed multiplier: petkraten     Adverbial multiplier: peterno     Multiplier verb: popeteriti     Multiplier prefix: petern-     Krat multiplier prefix: petkratn-     Krat adverbial multiplier: petkratno     Collective: petero     Separable collective: peter     Greek or Latinate collective: pentada     Greek collective prefix: penta-     Latinate collective prefix: kvinkve-     Fractional: petina     Fractional multiplier: petinski     Elemental: peterica     Number of musicians: kvintet

From Proto-Slavic *pętь

• IPA^(key): /péːt/
• Rhymes: -eːt
• Hyphenation: pet
• Homophone: ped

pẹ̑t

1. five

First declension (hard), fixed accent
	masculine, feminine and neuter	following adjectives and nouns
nom pl	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
plural
	masculine, feminine and neuter	following adjectives and nouns
nominative imenovȃlnik	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
genitive rodȋlnik	pétih	+ genitive
dative dajȃlnik	pétim	+ dative
accusative tožȋlnik	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
locative mẹ̑stnik	pétih	+ locative
instrumental orọ̑dnik	pétimi	+ instrumental
(vocative) (ogȏvorni imenovȃlnik)	pẹ̑t	+ circumflex genitive

• less common

Second declension (no endings), fixed accent
	masculine, feminine and neuter	following adjectives and nouns
nom pl	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
plural
	masculine, feminine and neuter	following adjectives and nouns
nominative imenovȃlnik	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
genitive rodȋlnik	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
dative dajȃlnik	pẹ̑t	+ dative
accusative tožȋlnik	pẹ̑t	+ genitive
locative mẹ̑stnik	pẹ̑t	+ locative
instrumental orọ̑dnik	pẹ̑t	+ instrumental
(vocative) (ogȏvorni imenovȃlnik)	pẹ̑t	+ circumflex genitive

pẹ̑t n

1. number five

Third neuter declension (no endings) , fixed accent (singularia tantum)
nom. sing.	pẹ̑t
gen. sing.	pẹ̑t
	singular
nominative imenovȃlnik	pẹ̑t
genitive rodȋlnik	pẹ̑t
dative dajȃlnik	pẹ̑t
accusative tožȋlnik	pẹ̑t
locative mẹ̑stnik	pẹ̑t
instrumental orọ̑dnik	pẹ̑t
(vocative) (ogȏvorni imenovȃlnik)	pẹ̑t

To express dual and plural, the phrase število pet 'number five' is used, e.g. dve števili pet sta napisani, or, informally, also petka.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /pɛ́ːt/
• Rhymes: -ɛːt
• Hyphenation: pet

pȇt

1. genitive dual/plural of peta

• “pet”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “pet”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references