have kittens
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
have kittens (third-person singular simple present has kittens, present participle having kittens, simple past and past participle had kittens)
- (informal) To become extremely upset.
- Your mum will have kittens when she sees what you've done to your hair!
- My teacher has kittens every time I get a question wrong.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:
- He re-gurgled. “But this is terrible.” “Might be considerably better, I agree.” “Your uncle will be most upset.” “He'll have kittens.”
- 2010, Jennifer Egan, “Safari”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:
- ‘Prepare yourself,’ he warned. ‘Your dad is having kittens.’
- (informal) To be in a state of frantic nervousness.
- The guests are starting to arrive, but the hostess is having kittens because nothing is ready yet.
- (literally) Usually of a female cat, to give birth to kittens.
Translations
to become extremely upset
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See also
- have a cow
Further reading
- Jonathon Green (2023), “have kittens v.”, in Green's Dictionary of Slang