bitch

English

Etymology

From Middle English biche, bicche, from Old English biċċe, from Proto-Germanic *bikjǭ (compare Norwegian bikkje (“dog”), Old Danish bikke), from *bikjaną (“to thrust, attack”) (compare Old Norse bikkja (“plunge into water”), Dutch bikken (“to hack”)). More at bicker.

Pronunciation
  • enPR: bĭch, IPA(key): /bɪt͡ʃ/
  • (Slang) IPA(key): /bɪt͡s/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

Noun

bitch (plural bitches)

  1. (dated or specialised, dog-breeding) A female dog or other canine, particularly a recent mother.
    My bitch just had puppies; they're so cute!
  2. (archaic, offensive) A promiscuous woman, slut, whore.[1]
  3. (vulgar, offensive) A despicable or disagreeable, aggressive person, typically a woman or man considered effeminate in some way. [from 15th c.]
    Ann gossiped about me and mocked my work; sometimes she can be a real bitch!
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of Iealousie, Fear, Sorrow, Suspition, Strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Locking Up, Oathes, Trials, Lawes, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed [by Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, 1638, OCLC 932915040, partition 3, section 3, member 2, subsection 1, page 610:
      He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore.
    • 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, I. iv. 60:
      'Look at the children, you nasty little bitch!' he sneered.
    • 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, page 70
      HASSAN: "You cheap Factualist bitch! Go and never darken my rumpus room again!"
  4. (vulgar, offensive) A submissive person who does what others want; (prison slang) a man forced or coerced into a homoerotic relationship. [from the 20th c]
    Dude, don't be such a bitch. Assert yourself.
    You're so weak-willed with your girlfriend. You must be the real bitch in the relationship.
    • 1999 September 23, Chris Sheridan, “This House Is Freakin’ Sweet”, “Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater”, Family Guy, season 2, episode 1, Fox Broadcasting Company
      Now that you're stinking rich, we'd gladly be your bitch.
  5. (obsolete, informal, of a man) A playful variation on dog (sense "man"). [from the 16th c]
  6. (humorous, vulgar, colloquial, used with a possessive pronoun) Friend. [from the 20th c]
    What’s up, my bitch?
    How my bitches been doin'?
  7. (vulgar, colloquial) A complaint, especially when the complaint is unjustified.
  8. (colloquial, vulgar, usually only used in the singular) A difficult or confounding problem.
    Level 5 was a real bitch, don’t you think?
    That's a bitch of a question.
  9. (colloquial) A queen (playing card), particularly the queen of spades in the card game of hearts.
  10. (vulgar, figuratively) Something unforgiving and unpleasant.
    • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 27:
      ...he wrote to me last week telling me about an incredible bitch of a row blazing there on account of someone having been and gone and produced an unofficial magazine called Raddled, full of obscene libellous Oz-like filth. And what I though, what Sammy and I thought, was—why not?
    Karma's a bitch.
  11. (vulgar, informal, slang) Place; situation
    I'm 'bout to get up outta this bitch.

Usage notes
  • While bitch’s original canine sense permits it to be used in most media, it remains offensive enough that, in the US, it is often minced (as b, b-word, or female dog) in formal contexts.

Alternative forms
slang and non-standard forms, used only for the insult (not the female animal):

Synonyms

Hyponyms
female canine

Derived terms
Terms derived from bitch

Translations
playful variation on dog (sense "man") — see dog
complaint — see complaint

References

Verb

bitch (third-person singular simple present bitches, present participle bitching, simple past and past participle bitched)

  1. (vulgar, intransitive) To behave or act as a bitch.
  2. (vulgar, intransitive) To criticize spitefully, often for the sake of complaining rather than in order to have the problem corrected.
    All you ever do is bitch about the food I cook for you!
  3. (vulgar, transitive) To spoil, to ruin.
    • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p. 162:
      ‘You're a Franco-maniac…You're thought to be a French agent…That's what's bitching your career!’

Synonyms

Translations

References
  1. Geoffrey Hughes, Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2006:
    The early applications were to a promiscuous or sensual woman, a metaphorical extension of the behavior of a bitch in heat. Herein lies the original point of the powerful insult son of a bitch, found as biche sone ca. 1330 in Arthur and Merlin ... while in a spirited exchange in the Chester Play (ca. 1400) a character demands: “Whom callest thou queine, skabde bitch?” (“Who are you calling a whore, you miserable bitch?”).

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English bitch, from Middle English biche, bicche, from Old English biċċe, from Proto-Germanic *bikjǭ.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bɪtʃ/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: bitch

Noun

bitch f (plural bitches, diminutive bitchje n)

  1. (derogatory) bitch (somewhat general term of abuse for a woman; disagreeable, assertive, aggressive or malicious woman)
    Synonyms: teef, trut, kreng
  2. (derogatory) bitch (person in a submissive or low-placed position)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bitch, from Middle English biche, bicche, from Old English biċċe, from Proto-Germanic *bikjǭ.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bitʃ/

Noun

bitch f (plural bitchs)

  1. bitch (disagreeable, despicable woman)
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