[f. prec. sb.] Of a cat: To bring forth kittens; also of some other animals: To bring forth young, to litter. (intr. and trans.) Hence Kittening vbl. sb.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lxxiv. (W. de W.), eevj/1. Theyr opynyon is false … that wesels conceyue atte mouth and kytneth [MS. Bodl. whelhiþ] att the eere.
1597. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 19. If your Mothers Cat had but kitten’d.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 191. Two as fine litters of rabbits as ever were kittened.
1859. Mrs. Gaskell, Round the Sofa, I. 335. My cat has kittened, too.
