▪ I. petter, n.
(ˈpɛtə(r))
[f. pet v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who pets or indulges.
| 1863 N. & Q. 3rd Ser. III. 240 The author must..be a petter of all kinds of pets. |
2. One who pets (pet v.1 b); one who engages in petting (petting vbl. n. 2).
| 1925 College Humor Aug. 77/1 Have a nice evening? Jean's some high-type petter, isn't she? 1930 F. Dell Love in Machine Age ix. 170 Science's adjuration to the petters is only: ‘You really must get some food and sleep, my dears!’ 1931 F. L. Allen Only Yesterday v. 101 The vendors of another picture promised ‘neckers, petters, white kisses, red kisses, pleasure-mad daughters, sensation-craving mothers’. 1931 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Oct. 183 One finds oneself extremely dubious about this contention that the modern adolescent ‘petter’ and ‘demi-vierge’ have discovered for themselves a satisfactory way of acquiring the adequate pre-marital emotional education. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §443/13 Heavy necker or petter. |
▪ II. petter, v.
(ˈpɛtə(r))
[Echoic: cf. pitter.]
To emit the sound natural to a grasshopper.
| 1849 Tait's Mag. XVI. 106 The grasshopper was pettering his monotonous contralto. |