have kittens

have kittens

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

have kittens (third-person singular simple present has kittens, present participle having kittens, simple past and past participle had kittens)

1. (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.’

2. (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.

3. (literally) Usually of a female cat, to give birth to kittens.

Translations

to become extremely upset

Dutch: een toeval krijgen Icelandic: brjálast, trompast, verða brjálaður Serbo-Croatian: dobiti mlade (idiom)

See also

• have a cow

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2023), “have kittens v.”, in Green's Dictionary of Slang