Dictionary

have kittens en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (informal) To become extremely upset.
   • ‘Prepare yourself,’ he warned. ‘Your dad is having kittens.’ 2010, Jennifer Egan, “Safari”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:
   • My teacher has kittens every time I get a question wrong.
   • Your mum will have kittens when she sees what you've done to your hair!
   • He re-gurgled. “But this is terrible.” “Might be considerably better, I agree.” “Your uncle will be most upset.” “He'll have kittens.” 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
2. (informal) To be in a state of frantic nervousness.
   • Phipps went on: “One of our chaps, out on a reccy over the Bulgarian front, thought he saw something in the snow. Something fishy. He dropped down to have a dekko and nearly had kittens. What d'you think? Jerry's got a mass of stuff there—tanks, guns, lorries, every sort of heavy armament. All camouflaged. White.” 2011 [1965], Olivia Manning, Friends And Heroes (The Balkan Trilogy), Random House, →ISBN:
   • The guests are starting to arrive, but the hostess is having kittens because nothing is ready yet.
3. (qualifier:literal) Usually of a female cat, to give birth to kittens.

Forms

Relateds

have a cow

Translations (6)

nl een toeval krijgen (to become extremely upset) · is brjálast (to become extremely upset) · is verða brjálaður (to become extremely upset) · is trompast (to become extremely upset) · sh dobiti mlade (to become extremely upset) · fr péter une coche (to become extremely upset)