Mitty in its archaic British sense referred to the storm petrel, a small seabird known for skimming ocean surfaces during storms. That ornithological sense is entirely obsolete; today mitty almost exclusively carries the cultural meaning from James Thurber's 1939 short story character Walter Mitty — a hapless daydreamer who escapes mundane reality through elaborate fantasies. Calling someone a mitty implies they are prone to self-aggrandising fantasies or delusions about their own abilities or importance.
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He was a proper mitty — spent half the briefing staring into space, probably imagining himself leading a hostage rescue.
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(UK, archaic) The storm petrel.
“Brushing my teeth in the morning is a zen moment for me. I often zone out in a very Walter Mitty type of way. Today I thought of how cool David the Gnome was for riding a fox…until I realized the fleas would be unbearable.”
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