catty

adj

1. (informal, literally)Resembling or characteristic of a cat.

   “catty eyes”

   “I heard a catty shriek.”

2. (broadly, informal)With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy, or upset (particularly in interactions between women).

   “The fact is, Mr Carrados, Gertrude is a misfire. It was the surprise of her life (if I said "disappointment" you'd think me catty) when Mark married me, and she didn't set out to be pleasant to the interloper.”

   ““So leave your umbrellas at home 'cause we're gonna be drier than my favorite varietal of white wine, pinot gris.” “Hmm. Interesting. According to my research, precipitation is a-coming.” “So Harry's wrong?” “I don't want to be a catty bitch, but kind of, yeah.” “Meow, Ham.””

noun

1. (informal)A (unit of) weight used in China which is metricated in Mainland China as exactly 0.5 kg, and approximately 0.6 kg for other places.

   “16 Mess, make a Tale, which here is 20 s. English, 5 Tale make a Bancal, a weight so called, and 20 Bancal make a Catty, another weight.”

   “Transparent yellow pieces are the best; the price is from eight to fourteen dollars per catty, according to size and quality.”

   “In China, festivals are important occasions, when edibles and other gifts are presented and exchanged. In the few years of its existence, the factory has made it a practice to present at various festival times to each worker 10 dumplings, ½ catty of "mid-Autumn cake," ¼ catty of dried plums, ½ catty of sugar, [and] 10 cents for making "la-pa" porridge, a food to be taken on the eighth day of the last month in the year.”

   “The 130,000 mou of cotton fields in (Pailichou) district of Chihchiang County have produced 17 million catties of cotton seed, and 2.5 million catties of ginned cotton have been sold to the state.”

   “To limit team members' consumption, it issued food stamps to the villagers and allowed everyone to eat one catty of rice a day.”

2. (informal, slang)A catapult.

   ““Give me your slingshot, and I'll let you have it back after school this afternoon,” she said firmly. […] I stuck the 'catty' into my back pocket and ran outside to meet the others.”

   “You could also keep a tennis ball and a frog, or a catapult and a frog, but not all three together. I know because I tried it. The frog got a bit squashed between the ball and the handle of the catty.”

name

1. (US, colloquial)The borough of Catasauqua in Pennsylvania.