betty

English Online Dictionary. What means betty‎? What does betty mean?

English

Alternative forms

• (bar used by thieves to open doors): bettee
• Betty

Etymology

From Betty (nickname for “Elizabeth”). In thieves’ cant a tool for wrenching locked doors is also called a Bess (from “Elizabeth”) or a Jenny. The “attractive woman” sense may relate to the character Betty Rubble in the cartoon The Flintstones.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛti/
• Rhymes: -ɛti

Noun

betty (plural betties)

1. (slang) A short bar used by thieves to wrench doors open; a jimmy. [from 17th century]
2. (slang) A picklock, skeleton key; a tool for opening locks. [from 18th century]
3. (archaic, derogatory) A man who performs tasks that traditionally belong to a woman; (originally) an effeminate or gay man. [from 17th century]
4. (US, archaic) A pear-shaped bottle covered with straw, in which olive oil is sometimes brought from Italy; a Florence flask. [17th to 19th century]
5. A baked dessert made with alternating layers of sweetened fruit and buttered bread crumbs. [from 19th century]
6. (slang, slightly pejorative) An attractive woman; a babe. [from 20th century]

Synonyms

• (attractive woman): see Thesaurus:beautiful woman
• (man who performs a woman's tasks): cot-betty, cot-quean, henhussy, molly

Hyponyms

• (man who performs a woman's tasks): househusband

Verb

betty (third-person singular simple present betties, present participle bettying, simple past and past participle bettied)

1. To pick a lock, to open with a betty. [from 19th century]
2. (archaic) To be overly attentive to someone or something.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:betty.

References

• 1989, Joan Hughes, Australian Words and Their Origins (page 39)

Further reading

• (dessert): Meta Given's Encyclopedia of Modern Cooking, J.G. Ferguson and Associates, Chicago, 1952, pages 726-727.

Anagrams

• TBYTE, tbyte