Meaning
A pupil seen as the teacher's favourite, and by extension any person who enjoys conspicuous favour from someone in authority. The label is nearly always pejorative: it implies unearned preference or currying favour rather than genuine merit, and it is typically applied by resentful peers at school or, jokingly, to adults at work. Almost always mildly insulting when applied to a child, and jocular when applied to an adult favoured by a boss. Possessive spelling varies: 'teacher's pet' for one teacher, occasionally 'teachers' pet'. Regional use: General English; first dictionary record in US references.
Origin
The pet at the phrase's heart is old: Wiktionary traces pet to a favourite or spoiled child, probably from Scottish Gaelic peata (a pet, tamed animal or spoiled child) and Middle Irish petta, a lap-dog, of uncertain ultimate origin. The schoolroom compound is much later: Merriam-Webster gives first known use as 1914, in the senses 'a pupil who has won the teacher's special favor' and 'a person who is treated as a favorite by one in authority' - the same dating Etymonline records for the derogatory use. Wiktionary's citations show the phrase still current more than a century on: Sting's lyrics for The Police's 1980 single 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' ('Sometimes it's not so easy to be the teacher's pet') and a New York Times profile of 12 September 2025 describing a suspect as having 'the personality of a teacher's pet'. Wikipedia notes the term is entered by the OED, Merriam-Webster and Collins, and that classroom favouritism, though widely acknowledged, is under-researched.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- pet pupil
- teacher's pets
Usage Examples
- Nobody wanted to ask the supervisor for time off, so the office teacher's pet volunteered, as usual.
- He was branded the teacher's pet after she let him retake the exam nobody else could.
- Being the teacher's pet in Mrs Alvarez's class mostly meant carrying the attendance slips down to the office.