kittennoun/ˈkɪtən̩/

• 1

  A young cat, especially before sexual maturity (reached at about seven months).

  • It was supposed to have happened thus: the cat had young kittens, and frequently carried them mice, and other animals its prey, and among the rest a young rat: the kittens, not being hungry, played with it, and when the cat came to give suck to the kittens, the rat likewise sucked her.
  • To the sounds, however, I paid no attention at first as I was much interested in the subject upon which I was writing; but at length my som Richard burst into my study, exclaiming that the kitten had climbed up to the top of a young ash tree, and could not get down again.
• 2

  A young rabbit, rat, hedgehog, squirrel, fox, beaver, badger, etc.

  • The first move at beaver raising in North Dakota had its starting in the fall of 1874, when a kitten beaver was taken out of Mandan Lake by the writer and given to a little Indian girl who then lived with her guardians at Pretty Point near the present village of Sanger, Oliver county.
  • 2009, Kathryn Walker, See How Rabbits Grow, publ. by PowerKiDS press (The Rosen Publishing Group Inc.), page 10. Rabbit babies are called kittens or kits. The mother prepares a cosy nest for her kittens.
• 3

  A moth of the genus Furcula.

  • Two of these formed cocoons in a manner I have not seen before. They were supplied when full-grown with plenty of rotten willow wood, which I have always found a most suitable material for insects using bark or old wood in forming cocoons such as the kittens, Apatele alni, etc., and most made the usual cycle of cocoons on it.
• 4

  A term of endearment, especially for a woman.

  • Speak only when spoken to, kitten.
• 5

  A term of endearment, especially for a woman.

kittenverb/ˈkɪtən̩/

• 1

  To give birth to kittens.

  • A cat about to kitten, must not be spoken of by its name, but called a witch. (Madagascar.)
  • 'Princess the Lady Regina of Alphington is about to kitten. I must be there to support her.'