From Middle English biche, bicche, from Old English biċċe, from Proto-West Germanic *bikkjā, from Proto-Germanic *bikjǭ (compare Norwegian bikkje, gmq-oda bikke), from *bikjaną ("to thrust, attack") (compare Old Norse bikkja, Dutch bikken).

• enPR: bĭch, IPA: /bɪt͡ʃ/
• (Slang, AAVE) IPA: /bɪʃ/

bitch

1. (dated or specialised, dog-breeding) A female dog or other canine, particularly a recent mother.

   My bitch just had puppies; they're so cute!

2. (archaic, offensive) A promiscuous woman, slut, whore.
3. (vulgar, offensive) A despicable or disagreeable, aggressive person, usually a woman. [from 15th c.]

   Ann spread rumors about me; she's such a bitch.

   • 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of Iealousie, Fear, Sorrow, Suspition, Strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Locking Up, Oathes, Trials, Lawes, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗, partition 3, section 3, member 2, subsection 1, page 610 ↗:

     He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Chapter 4”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC ↗:

     'Look at the children, you nasty little bitch!' he sneered.

   • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 83 ↗:

     HASSAN: "You cheap Factualist bitch! Go and never darken my rumpus room again!"

4. (vulgar, offensive) A woman.
5. (vulgar, offensive) A man considered weak, effeminate, timid or pathetic in some way
   1. (LGBT, slang, derogatory) An obviously gay man.
6. (vulgar, offensive) A submissive person who does what others want; (prison slang) a man forced or coerced into a homoerotic relationship. [from the 20th c]

   Dude, don't be a bitch. Assert yourself.

   You're so weak-willed with your girlfriend. You must be the real bitch in the relationship.

   • 1999 September 23, Chris Sheridan, “This House Is Freakin’ Sweet”, “Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater”, Family Guy, season 2, episode 1, Fox Broadcasting Company

     Now that you're stinking rich, we'd gladly be your bitch.

7. (obsolete, informal, of a man) A playful variation on dog (sense "man"). [from the 16th c]
8. (humorous, vulgar, colloquial, used with a possessive pronoun) Friend. [from the 20th c]

   What’s up, bitch?

   How my bitches been doin'?

9. (vulgar, colloquial) A complaint, especially when the complaint is unjustified.
10. (colloquial, vulgar) A difficult or confounding problem.

    That level was a real bitch, don’t you think?

    That's a bitch of a question.

11. (colloquial, vulgar, card games) A queen playing card, particularly the queen of spades in the card game of hearts.

    Coordinate term: butcher

12. (vulgar, figurative) Something unforgiving and unpleasant.
    • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC ↗, section I, page 19 ↗:

      […] he wrote to me last week telling me about an incredible bitch of a row blazing there on account of someone having been and gone and produced an unofficial magazine called Raddled, full of obscene libellous Oz-like filth. And what I thought, what Sammy and I thought, was – why not?

    Karma's a bitch.

13. (vulgar, informal, slang) Place; situation

    I'm 'bout to get up outta this bitch.

14. (UK, obsolete, university slang) Tea the drink.
    • 1824, Gradus Ad Cantabrigiam: Or, New University Guide to the Academical Customs, and Colloquial Or Cant Terms Peculiar to the University of Cambridge, Observing Wherein It Differs from Oxford, page 131:

      […] seldom gets "a little the worse for liquor," gives no swell parties, runs very little into debt, takes his cup of bitch at night, and goes quietly to bed, and thus he passes his time in a way a Varmint man would despise.

15. (chess, slang, vulgar, offensive) A queen.

• (female dog, etc) doggess (rare), female (when the species is specified or implied), she-dog
• (malicious, etc, woman) See Thesaurus:shrew
• (malicious, etc, man) See Thesaurus:bastard
• (jocular slang, one's friend) See Thesaurus:friend
• (person in a relationship who is made to adopt a submissive role) doormat, slave
• (man forced into a homoerotic relationship in prison) punk, gunsel
• (a complaint) gripe, grumble, kvetch, moan, whinge
• (difficult or confounding problem) toughie, stinker, pain in the ass

• French: chienne (dog), louve (wolf), renarde (fox)
• German: Fähe (dog, fox, badger, ferret, etc.), Hündin (dog), Wölfin (wolf), Füchsin (fox), Kojotin (coyote), Schakalin (jackal)
• Italian: cagna (dog), lupa (wolf)
• Portuguese: cadela, cachorra, loba (wolf), bucica (regionalism)
• Russian: су́ка
• Spanish: perra (dog), zorra (fox), loba (wolf)

• French: garce, rosse, salope
• German: Zicke, Schlampe, Miststück
• Italian: stronza, troia, puttana
• Portuguese: puta, vagabunda, vadia
• Russian: су́ка
• Spanish: perra, arpía, zorra

• French: pute

• Russian: пизда́

• Russian: шурак

• French: saleté, saloperie (vulgar), couille
• Portuguese: bucica (colloquial, regionalism)
• Spanish: marrón (colloquial)

• French: dame

bitch (bitches, present participle bitching; simple past and past participle bitched)

1. (vulgar, intransitive) To behave or act as a bitch.
2. (vulgar, intransitive) To criticize spitefully, often for the sake of complaining rather than in order to have the problem corrected.

   All you ever do is bitch about the food I cook for you!

   • 2008, Patterson Hood, The Righteous Path:

     I ain't bitching 'bout things that aren't in my grasp
     Just trying to hold steady on the righteous path.

3. (vulgar, transitive) To spoil, to ruin.

• (make derogatory comments) badmouth, slag off (UK), snipe
• (complain spitefully) See Thesaurus:complain

• French: chialer, pester, râler, rouspéter
• German: meckern, maulen
• Portuguese: choramingar
• Russian: скули́ть
• Spanish: quejarse