Catty vs Cruelty - What's the difference?
catty | cruelty |
(informal, of a person or remark) With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy or upset, particularly among women.
(informal) Resembling or characteristic of a cat.
A (unit of) weight used in China, generally standardized as half a kilogram.
* 2009 , Huaiyin Li, Village China Under Socialism and Reform: A Micro-History, 1948-2008 , Stanford University Press, ISBN 978-0-8047-5974-8,
* 1699 , Captain William Dampier, A new voyage round the world, Volume 1 :
* 1847 , Robert Montgomery Martin, China; Political, Commercial, and Social , Volume 2, James Madden (publisher),
(uncountable) an indifference to suffering or positive pleasure in inflicting suffering.
(countable) a cruel act
As nouns the difference between catty and cruelty
is that catty is a (unit of) weight used in china, generally standardized as half a kilogram while cruelty is (uncountable) an indifference to suffering or positive pleasure in inflicting suffering.As an adjective catty
is (informal|of a person or remark) with subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy or upset, particularly among women.catty
English
Alternative forms
* cattieEtymology 1
; in sense “hostility”, see (m).Adjective
(er)- a catty smell
Synonyms
* (spiteful) bitchy (derogatory), cattish, malicious, nasty, snide, spitefulSee also
*Etymology 2
From (etyl) kati, from (etyl) languages, Mandarin:Noun
(head)page 94:
- To limit team members' consumption, it issued food stamps to the villagers and allowed everyone to eat one catty of rice a day.
- 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.
page 124:
- Transparent yellow pieces are the best; the price is from eight to fourteen dollars per catty , according to size and quality.