higher than a cat’s back adj.
1. very tall, very high.
![]() | Major Downing (1834) 200: Cutting up capers as high as a cat’s back. | |
![]() | Poker Stories 196: Soon his checks were piled ‘higher than a cat’s back’. | |
![]() | DN. | |
![]() | Runyon on Broadway (1954) 73: My blood pressure is higher than a cat’s back. | ‘Blood Pressure’ in|
![]() | Amer. Thes. of Sl. 39.7: Tall; high...higher than a cat’s back . | |
![]() | You All Spoken Here 72: As high as a cat’s back: ’Way up. |
2. very expensive; priced very high.
![]() | Breeder’s Gaz 1 505/2: SHEEP— ‘Higher than a cat's back!’ is the expressive and frequently very emphatic answer to the question ‘How is the sheep market?’. | |
![]() | DN III 140: High as a cat’s back [...] Very high-priced. | |
![]() | Ruppenthal Collection n.p.: High as a cat’s back —very high, esp. as to price, cost, etc [DARE]. | |
![]() | Gloss. New Paltz n.p.: High as a cat’s back—Speaking of the price of maple syrup: ‘Syrup is going to be as high as a cat’s back’ [DARE]. | |
![]() | in DARE. | |
![]() | Today Show Letters n.p.: That store is as high as the hair on a cat’s back [DARE]. |
3. in fig. use, of money or a limit in gambling.
![]() | Forty Years a Gambler 18: I began [...] to play the bank higher than a cat’s back, as the old keno game was a great producer. | |
![]() | Log of a Cowboy 269: The dealer has lowered the limit from a hundred to fifty, for old Paul is playing them as high as a cat’s back. | |
![]() | Boss 195: You’re setting into a game of commerce where the limit’s higher than a cat’s back. |
4. drunk [pun on SE high/high adj.1 (1)].
![]() | in DARE. |