pussy

From puss +‎ -y (diminutive suffix).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpʊsɪ/
• (General American) enPR: po͝osʹi, IPA^(key): /ˈpʊsi/

• Audio (US, Northern California)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊsi
• Hyphenation: pus‧sy

pussy (plural pussies)

1. (informal, affectionate) A cat. [from 17th c.]
   • 2007, Liz Jones, "Are cats the new dogs?", The Independent, 17 Nov 07:

     And although, as someone recently said to me, they are not "designer" (she had expected my pussies to be expensive, with a pedigree), to me my cats are the most beautiful in the world.

2. (colloquial, now rare) An affectionate term for a woman or girl, seen as having characteristics associated with cats such as sweetness. [from 16th c.]
   • 2010, Jojo Moyes, "Why love letters are better left unread", The Telegraph, 3 Jun 2010:

     If Lloyd George’s endearments to mistress Frances Stevenson – “My darling Pussy. You might phone… on Friday if you can come. Don’t let Hankey see you” – had been made similarly public, would he have maintained his own reputation as a towering statesman?

3. (vulgar, slang) The female genitalia; the vulva and/or vagina. [from 17th c.]

   You have a lovely pussy!

   • 2016, Alexandra Sirowy, The Telling (young adult fiction), Simon & Schuster, page 6:

     There's a lot of disagreement about where that word came from. Pussy is actually a diminutive of pusillanimous, meaning cowardly. Although maybe the origin doesn't matter, since everyone equates it with the female anatomy anyway?

4. Anything soft and furry; a bloom form, or catkin, as on the pussy willow. [from 19th c.]
5. (vulgar, slang, uncountable) Sexual intercourse with a woman. [from 20th c.]

   I’m gonna get me some pussy tonight.

6. (derogatory, vulgar, slang, chiefly Canada, US) A coward; a weakling; an ineffectual, timid, or pathetic person. [from 20th c.]

   You're such a pussy!

   • 1925, Sinclair Lewis, Martin Arrowsmith (fiction), Harcourt Brace & Company:

     You ought to hear some of the docs that are the sweetest old pussies with their patients—the way they bawl out the nurses. But labs—they seem sort of real. I don't suppose you can bluff a bacteria—what is it?—bacterium?

   • 2007 November 26, Matt Keating, “Do everyone a favour and don't bring your cold to work”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 6 October 2014:

     I couldn't carry the burden of shame engendered by the bully-boy advertising of "max-strength" cold and flu remedies, the obvious subtext of which is "Get to work, you pussy."

7. (dated) A game of tip-cat.

• (cat): kitty, kitty-cat, puss, pussy-cat
• (vagina): See Thesaurus:vagina
• (uncountable: intercourse with woman): poontang, poon, tang, punani
• (cowardly man): scaredy-cat, wimp, wuss, pansy, sissy, weenie, weakling

• (female genitalia): genitals

From pus +‎ -y.

• enPR: pŭs'i, IPA^(key): /ˈpʌsi/

• Audio (US, Northern California)

  (file)

pussy (comparative pussier, superlative pussiest)

1. (medicine) Containing pus.

• purulent

pussy (comparative more pussy, superlative most pussy)

1. (slang, dated) Alternative form of pursy

• pussy at OneLook Dictionary Search

• pussy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.