Forms: 1 bicce, bicge, 3–4 bicche, 4 bycche, biche, 5 bych(e, (begch), 5–6 bytch(e, 9 Sc. bich, 6– bitch. [OE. bicce, elsewhere in Teutonic only in ON. bikkja: it is altogether uncertain what is the relation of the two words, whether they are cognate, or if not, which is adopted from the other. If the ON. bikkja was the original, it may, as shown by Grimm, be ad. Lapp. pittja: but the converse is equally possible. Ger. betze, petze (only modern), if related at all, must be a germanized form of bitch. The history of the F. biche bitch, and biche fawn, and their relation, if any, to the Eng. word, are unknown. There is a Sc. form bick sometimes affected in the pronunciation of sense 1, to avoid association with sense 2.]
1. The female of the dog.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 120. Canicula, bicʓe.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 362. Biccean meolc.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5394. Comen tigres many hundre; Graye bicchen als it waren.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. III. 141. He fonde a bicche ȝeue þe childe souke. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (1495), 742. The bytche bringeth forth blynde whelpes.
1542. Brinklow, Complaynt, xxiv. (1874), 63. As chast as a sawt bytch.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. v. 11. A blinde bitches Puppies, fifteene i’th litter.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem., xvii. (1759), I. 12.
| Nor putting Pigs t’ a Bitch to nurse, | |
| To turn ’em into Mungrel-Curs. |
1842. Lever, Handy Andy, ii. 14. All the dogs are well, I hope, and my favourite bitch.
b. The female of the fox, wolf, and occasionally of other beasts; usually in combination with the name of the species. (Also as in sense 2.)
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., III. II. (Arb.), 144. The dogge tiger beynge thus kylled they … came to the denne where the bytche remayned with her twoo younge suckynge whelpes.
1569. Spenser, Sonn., vii. And at his feete a bitch Wolfe did giue sucke.
a. 1687. Cotton, Aeneid Burlesqued (1692), 70. I saw Mischievous bitchfox Helena.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, X. vii. We have got the dog fox, I warrant the bitch is not far off.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxxvi. As if ye had been littered of bitch-wolves, not born of women.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 265. The whelp of a bitch-catamount.
2. Applied opprobriously to a woman; strictly, a lewd or sensual woman. Not now in decent use; but formerly common in literature.
a. 1400[?]. Chester Pl. (1843), 181. Whom calleste thou queine, skabde biche?
1575. J. Still, Gamm. Gurton, II. ii. Come out, thou hungry needy bitch.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, XVIII. 310. Ulysses looking sourly answered, You Bitch.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 9. An extravagant bitch of a wife.
1790. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Adv. Fut. Laureat, Wks. 1812, II. 337. Call her Prostitute, Bawd, dirty Bitch.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1834), 446. You are a … son of a bitch.
b. Applied to a man (less opprobrious, and somewhat whimsical, having the modern sense of ‘dog’). Not now in decent use.
a. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 54. He is a schrewed byche, In fayth, I trow, he be a wyche.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XVII. iii. Landlord is a vast comical bitch.
3. Comb. and attrib., as (sense 1) bitch-puppy, -whelp; (sense 2) bitch-baby, -clout, -daughter, -hunter, -son; † bitch-daughter (obs.), the nightmare; bitch-fou a. (Sc.), as drunk and sick as a bitch, ‘beastly’ drunk.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 218. Come fforthe, thou hore, and stynkynge *byche-clowte.
1483. Cath. Angl., 31. Þe *Bychdoghter, epialta, noxa.
1786. Burns, Interv. Ld. Dare. I’ve been … bitch-fou ’mang godly priests.
1787. Hunter, in Phil. Trans., LXXVII. 255. My Lord Clanbrassil purchased a *Bitch-puppy.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 8487. *Biche sone! thou drawest amis.
c. 1480. Gloss., in Wright, Voc., 251. Hec catula, a *byche qwelpe.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 220. The *bitch-whelpe that commeth of the first litter.
