Kittenfishing
Embellishing traits about yourself to create a false profile
Example
She left the restaurant immediately after realizing he'd been kittenfishing her this whole time. He has three kids and has been divorced twice
Discovering your match is kittenfishing you
Related Slang
| Catfish | To assume a false identity |
| Fishing | Sending out several messages on a dating app |
| Tindering | Using Tinder |
| Hiberdating | Ignoring friends while dating a person |
| Cuffing | Linking up in a relationship with a person |
| Swipe left | Reject |
| Swipe right | Approve |
| Hook up | To be physically intimate with another person |
| Stashing | Dating a person but unwilling to publicly acknowledge it |
Are you financially literate?
Kittenfishing is when a person purposely highlights their traits while hiding their uglier features to create a false impression of themselves online to others. The term is a variation of "catfish," but smaller in scale, hence the "kitten" part of the name.
The "catfish" term was made famous by a 2010 documentary and TV show of the same name. However, Kittenfishing was coined in 2017 primarily to describe users on online dating websites who embellish their traits, creating an inaccurate profile. People that kittenfish typically do so because of their insecurities and wanting to appear as attractive as possible.
Difference between catfishing and kittenfishing
The difference between catfishing and kittenfishing is that catfishing involves creating a completely fake person, whereas kittenfishing involves embellishments to a real person's already-existing traits. Examples of kittenfishing include exaggerating your job, using flattering photos of yourself that are dated and no longer representative of your appearance, or not divulging that you have been divorced four times.
People may also use kittenfishing outside of the dating realm, such as job interviews and social media profiles.