Meaning of have kittens | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To become extremely upset.
   Commonwealth, UK, informal
2. To be in a state of frantic nervousness.
   informal
3. Usually of a female cat, to give birth to kittens.

Equivalents

Examples

“Your mum will have kittens when she sees what you've done to your hair!”

“My teacher has kittens every time I get a question wrong.”

“He re-gurgled. “But this is terrible.” “Might be considerably better, I agree.” “Your uncle will be most upset.” “He'll have kittens.””

“‘Prepare yourself,’ he warned. ‘Your dad is having kittens.’”

“The guests are starting to arrive, but the hostess is having kittens because nothing is ready yet.”

“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.””

CEFR level