/ˈbɛti/
OriginFrom Betty (nickname for “Elizabeth”). In thieves’ cant a tool for wrenching locked doors is also called a Bess (from “Elizabeth”) or a Jenny. The “attractive woman” sense may relate to the character Betty Rubble in the cartoon The Flintstones.
- slangA short bar used by thieves to wrench doors open; a jimmy.
“No modern Lycæum vvill ever equal thy Glory, […] deſcribing the povverful Betty, or the artful Picklock, […]”
- slangA picklock, skeleton key; a tool for opening locks.
“After a quick meal at a tea shop, we found ourselves in the hallway at the Midland Hotel, where he removed a skeleton key, or “betty” as he called it, from his pocket and inserted it in the keyhole. [”
- US, archaicA pear-shaped bottle covered with straw, in which olive oil is sometimes brought from Italy; a Florence flask.
“On olive oil in casks, twenty cents per gallon; olive salad oil in bottles or betties, thirty per centum ad valorem”
- A baked dessert made with alternating layers of sweetened fruit and buttered bread crumbs.
“A pie-size betty is traditional, but if you like, assemble the recipe in individual ovenproof ramekins.”
- slangAn attractive woman; a babe.
“Isn't my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972. Wasn't my Mom a betty? She died when I was just a baby. A fluke accident during a routine liposuction. I don't remember her, but I li”
- To pick a lock, to open with a betty.
““Well then,” he said. “Let’s say you can betty the lock, hang on a rope, and break the drum, and then lock up again with nobody the wiser. How do I get on in the first place, past the Scots jack, with”
“The forty quid! Gone! ’Ow could she ’ave gotten in there? The peter ain’t broke, no sign of it bein’ bettied, and I the only one w’ the key.”
- archaicTo be overly attentive to someone or something.
““I’m perfectly well, thank you, Miss Hester,” she said, coldly. “I detest being bettied.””
“If anything on earth is reprehensible in a man and disgusting to a woman, it is to have said man hen-hussying and bettying about the kitchen”
- A diminutive of the female given name Elizabeth.
“People in the last century weren't afraid of homely names; now we are all so smart and fine: no more "Lady Bettys" now.”
“But Mrs. Betty Carver respects tradition, and this, I'm afraid, is ours. - - - She smells like expensive soap and her teeth are shiny-white. She does not in any way look like her name. It's not her fa”
Formsbetties(plural) · bettee(alternative) · Betty(alternative) · betties(present, singular, third-person) · bettying(participle, present) · bettied(participle, past) · bettied(past)
Source: Wiktionary