• enPR: bĭch, IPA: /bɪt͡ʃ/
• (Slang) IPA: /bɪt͡s/

bitch (plural bitches)

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 gossiped about me and mocked my work; sometimes she can be a real 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: Printed [by Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, OCLC 932915040 ↗, 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. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, I. iv. 60:

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

   • 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, page 70

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

4. (vulgar, offensive) A woman.
5. (vulgar, offensive) A man#Noun|man considered weak, effeminate, timid or pathetic in some way
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 such 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#Noun|dog (sense "man"). [from the 16th c]
8. (humorous, vulgar, colloquial, used with a possessive pronoun) Friend. [from the 20th c]

   What’s up, my bitch?

   How my bitches been doin'?

9. (vulgar, colloquial) A complaint, especially when the complaint is unjustified.
10. (colloquial, vulgar, , usually only used in the singular) A difficult or confounding problem.

    Level 5 was a real bitch, don’t you think?

    That's a bitch of a question.

11. (colloquial) A queen (playing card), particularly the queen of spades in the card game of hearts.
12. (vulgar, figurative) Something unforgiving and unpleasant.
    • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 27:

      ...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 though, 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.

• (female dog, etc) female (when the species is specified or implied)
• (malicious, etc, woman) seeSynonyms en
• (malicious, etc, man) seeSynonyms en
• (jocular slang, one's friend) seeSynonyms en
• (person in an unfavorable, undesirable position)
• (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
• (to talk about)

• 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)
• 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: шура́к

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

• French: dame

bitch (bitches, present participle bitching; 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!

3. (vulgar, transitive) To spoil, to ruin.
   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p. 162:

     ‘You're a Franco-maniac…You're thought to be a French agent…That's what's bitching your career!’

• (make derogatory comments) badmouth, slag off (UK), snipe
• (complain spitefully) seeSynonyms en

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