titter

English

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɪtə(r)

Etymology 1

First attested in the 1610s. Perhaps imitative or perhaps related to Old Norse titra (shake, shiver, quiver), dialectal Swedish tittra (snicker), Middle English titten (to waver).[1][2]

Verb

titter (third-person singular simple present titters, present participle tittering, simple past and past participle tittered)

  1. To laugh or giggle in a somewhat subdued or restrained way, as from nervousness or poorly-suppressed amusement.
    • Longfellow
      A group of tittering pages ran before.
  2. (obsolete) To teeter; to seesaw.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

titter (plural titters)

  1. A nervous or somewhat repressed giggle.
    • Coleridge
      There was a titter of [] delight on his countenance.
Translations

Etymology 2

Probably related to tit, titty.

Noun

titter (plural titters)

  1. (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast.
    • 1995 February 21, Agent_69 [username], “big breast video list”, in alt.sex.breast, Usenet:
      Flesh Gordon 2 - I remember that this one was chock full of big titters. Many of them looked like the natural variety, as well.
    • 1999 March 13, MrMalo [username], “Re: State Capitals”, in alt.jokes.limericks, Usenet:
      there was an old lady from raleigh
      who was so doggone nasty by golly
      just squeezin her titters
      you'd pick up some critters
      and bathe twice in one month for your folly
    • 2013, Dorothy St. James, Oak and Dagger, Berkley Prime Crime (2013), →ISBN, unnumbered page:
      “The poor dear, even her titters are weighted down with melancholy,” Pearle said to Mable.
      “I don't know what you're talking about. Her titters look perky enough to me,” Mable replied.
    • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:titter.
Synonyms

References

  1. titter” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. titter” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
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