pet

plural pets

1. An animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.

   family pet, pet cat, pet dog, pet store

   1 more example

   My dog Fido has been a loyal pet for ten years.

2. broadlySomething kept as a companion, including inanimate objects.

   pet plant, pet rock

   1 more example

   Papyrus: This is my brother's pet rock. He always forgets to feed it. As usual, I have to take responsibility.

   2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X

3. One who is excessively loyal to a superior and receives preferential treatment.
4. Any person or animal especially cherished and indulged; a darling.

   the love of cronies, pets, and favourites

   1710 December 31 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele et al.], “Wednesday, December 21, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 266; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume III, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, →OCLC

   1 more example

   At first she sat silent; but that could not last: she had resolved to make a pet of her little cousin, as she would have him to be; and she commenced stroking his curls, and kissing his cheek, and offering him tea in her saucer, like a baby.

   1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIX, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC

present singular third person pets · participle present petting · participle past petted · past petted

1. transitiveTo stroke or fondle (an animal).

   I really love to pet cute puppies.

   Synonyms: pat, smooth

2. informalintransitivetransitiveTo stroke or fondle (another person) amorously.

   We started petting each other the moment we were alone.

   1 more example

   So we kissed + petted for about 15 mins. + he still wasn't hard, altho he acted like he was enjoying himself.

   1973 September 18, Lou Sullivan, Diary

3. datedtransitiveTo keep or treat (an animal) as a pet.

   Deer are often tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed by all Malays, that it is very natural they should endeavour to introduce them into the remote islands in which they settled, and whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for their subsistence.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 140

4. datedtransitiveTo treat (someone) as a pet; to fondle; to indulge.

   His daughter was petted and spoiled.

   1 more example

   […] the American dramatist has had to waste most of his first act elaborately planting the information that his Mister Quex is rich, petted by Society, and altogether more spectacular than the common run of men.

   1919 August, P. G. Wodehouse, “Prohibition and the Drama”, in Vanity Fair, page 21

5. archaicintransitiveTo be a pet.
6. archaicintransitiveTo be peevish; to sulk.

   He sure is queasie stomach't that must pet, and puke, at such a trivial circumstance

   1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political

   Synonyms: mope, pout

1. figurativelynot comparableFavourite; cherished; the focus of one's (usually positive) attention.

   a pet child

   5 more examples

   a pet project

   The professor seemed offended by the criticism of her pet theory.

   Some young lady's pet curate.

   1886, Frederic Harrison, The Choice of Books

   Major Butler has a pet grievance and a pet aversion, which he forces on the reader in every chapter, and which becomes at last very wearisome.

   1875, William Conant Church, The Galaxy, page 141

   In an interview with Flying magazine, Heberding commented that her pet annoyance was "the reluctance of people generally to accept a woman whether as a pilot or a preflight inspector."

   1991, Deborah G. Douglas, United States Women in Aviation, 1940-1985, page 9

2. literallynot comparableKept or treated as a pet.

   pet rock

3. not comparableobsoleteGood; ideal.

   “Now,” said Hands, “look there; there’s a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat's paw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that old ship.”

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

plural pets

1. A fit of petulance, a sulk, arising from the impression that one has been offended or slighted.

   Buck Mulligan sat down in a sudden pet.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   His genius at this time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his mother a tragedy, in which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, it made her laugh so, that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   There was something ludicrous, even more, unbecoming a gentleman, in leaving a friend's house in a pet, with the host's reproaches sounding in his ears, to be matched only by the bitterness of the guest's sneering retorts.

   1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 105

present singular third person pets · participle present petting · participle past petted · past petted

1. To be petulant or upset; to have a problem with.

   Got suttin' in the glove compartment and I won't pet to use it

   2019, “Going Through It” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta

plural pets

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of petition.

plural pets

1. GeordieIrelandA term of endearment usually applied to women and children.

plural PETs

1. abbreviationinitialismuncountablechemistryInitialism of polyethylene terephthalate.

   1 more example

   An effort was made to fit the flexible tube at least 3 mm deep onto the vasculature; (2) for the remaining systems, 3D-printed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) reservoir blocks were manufactured by PrintPlace using FDM technology. The additively manufactured PET reservoir blocks were previously applied and proven to effectively circulate the agent through the healing network [6].

   2022 May 9, Eleni Tsangouri et al., “Reservoir-Vascular Tubes Network for Self-Healing Concrete: Performance Analysis by Acoustic Emission, Digital Image Correlation and Ultrasound Velocity”, in Applied Sciences, volume 12, number 10, →DOI, archived from the original on 18 Apr 2025

   Synonyms: PETE

2. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountablemedicineAcronym of positron emission tomography.

   1 more example

   He [Rob Beanlands] is a founding director of the National Cardiac PET Centre, the first facility in Canada dedicated to the use of PET (positron-emission tomography) as a non-invasive cardiac diagnostic tool. PET technology can help determine whether areas of the heart muscle are receiving enough blood, if there is heart damage or scar tissue in the heart, or if there is a buildup of abnormal substances in the heart muscle.

   2024 January 19, Elizabeth Payne, “Heart Institute a second family to new CEO […]”, in Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ont.: Postmedia, published 20 January 2024, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2024, page A4, column 2

3. abbreviationacronymcountablebiologyAcronym of paired-end tag.

   Synonyms: ditag

4. abbreviationacronymcountablehistoricalcomputingAcronym of personal electronic transactor, a line of personal computers produced by Commodore International.

   Why is the order of graphical characters in the PETSCII table so seemingly haphazard? The answer is that arrangement was dictated by the PET keyboard design, a hardware-driven decision.

   2014, Nick Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 225

5. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablemedicineInitialism of perineal ectopic testis (a rare congenital anomaly of the testis).

1. CanadianabbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

   But Wright takes a rather contrarian position about the impact of emotionally charged Trudeaumania on PET’s astonishing political rise in 1968.

   2016 November 20, “New books put Trudeaumania in fresh perspective”, in Toronto Star, archived from the original on 07 Aug 2017