Pet Meaning
/pɛt/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.
nounSomething kept as a companion, including inanimate objects.
Sentence Examples
I buried my dog at the pet cemetery.
Being in a room full of smokers is my pet peeve.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She loved her little dog so much that she treated it like a spoiled ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She adopted a rescue ____ from the shelter and named him after her favorite fictional character.
Word Origin & History
Originally northern dialectal, from Scots pet (“an animal that has been tamed and is kept as a pet; a darling or favourite; a petted or spoiled child”), probably from Scottish Gaelic peata (“pet, tamed animal, spoiled child”), from Middle Irish petta, peta (“pet, lap-dog”), of uncertain origin, possibly from a pre-Indo-European substrate. Compare also peat (“pet, darling, woman”), which is likely not related. The verb is derived from the noun.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
"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:
"[…] 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:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She loved her little dog so much that she treated it like a spoiled ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She adopted a rescue ____ from the shelter and named him after her favorite fictional character.