cat n.1
1. uses based on the identification of the cat with femininity.
(a) (later use is US black) a prostitute.
 | Political Poems II 113: Beware of Cristis curse, and of cattis tailis [M.] [F&H]. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Satyre of Thrie Estaits I (1604) 16: wantonnes Hay, as ane brydlit Cat, I brank. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Northward Hoe I i: I coulde teare out those false eyes, those Cats eyes, that can see in the night: punck I could. | |
| Woman is a Weathercock (1888) I ii: Scratch faces, like a wild-cat of Pick’d-hatch. | |
| The Changeling I ii: Cat-whore, cat-whore, her permasant! | |
| Varietie IV i: [I am] one Cat among so many Mastives. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 13 23–30 Aug. 120: Away with them mercinary Monkeys, pockey Pieces of mortality, that make a Trade of Lust, and a pastime of incontinencie [...] But hang them Powl-Catts. | |
| Kind Keeper III i: Your kept Mistress is originally a Punk; and let the Cat be chang’d into a Lady never so formally, she still retains her natural property of Mousing. | |
| ‘Debauchery Scared’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 160: His master [...] swore he would turn him away, Sir, / ’Lest he would get him a bit for his Cat, / and into his Chamber convey her. / Some jolly Dame he was willing to have, / and gave to his Bumkin a Guiney. | |
| (trans.) Pantagruelian Prognostications (1927) II 693: Those whom Venus is said to rule [...] light skirts, wrigglers, misses, cats. | |
| ‘Phyllis, or the Progress of Love’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) 403: For John was landlord, Phyllis hostess; They keep, at Staines, the old Blue Boar, / Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore. | |
| Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 29: Plundering his Lordship, who knew nothing of his Loss ’till next Morning [...] his Cats got too far off to be overtaken. | |
| ‘The Court Wasp’ in Lover’s Pacquet 14: Just so Captain Wasp, every Night in is Arms / Hugs a Cat, and declares, she has ten thousand Charms. | |
| New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn). | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Answer to Darby O’Gallagher’ Songs (publ.?) 5: Then with a stout Blow, / Of two Stones Below, / He made her to Scream like a Cat in a Factory. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: Lewd women, cats. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Modern Flash Dict. 9: Cat – a drunken, fighting prostitute. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Peeping Tom (London) 50 198/3: Mrs Simpson still lives, abandoned by every sentiment of virtue and decorum [...] She is now known as the Canterbury Cat. | |
| Vocabulum 18: cat. A drunken prostitute. | |
| ‘Negro Sl. in Lincoln University’ in AS IX:4 288: cat A low woman; a prostitute. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Monkey On My Back (1954) 99: The word cat, for example, was used to mean another boy, or a prostitute, or a man looking for a woman, or a homosexual. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 21: Madam alla time tellin us cats, Don’ never say motherfug roun them real fay tricks, but Kee-ryees! | |
| (con. 1890s) in Hellhole 161: Criminals whom Molly still designates by the names with which she first learned to identify them: ‘Cats’ or ‘gooks’ – the small-time madams she presently meets in the House of detention. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 cat Definition: 1. a prostitute. Example: 42nd and Broadway is where the cats hang. | |
| (con. late 19C) Shady Ladies of the Old West 🌐 In the Kansas trail towns common terms included [...] ‘nymphs du prairie’, ‘calico queens’, and ‘painted cats.’. |
(b) attrib. use of sense 1a.
| Brain Guy (1937) 40: A little job now and then keeps them in cat money. |
(c) a woman, esp. a spiteful and malicious one; thus old cat, an unpleasant, gossiping old woman.
| Midsummer Night’s Dream III ii: Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose. | |
| Malcontent I vi: Why, that at four women were fools, at fourteen drabs, at forty bawds, at fourscore witches, and at a hundred, cats. | |
| View of Society II 108: She would kick up a fine dust, for there was not such a hell-fire old cat living. | |
| Sporting Mag. May X 114/1: My Governess has been in such a fuss / About the death of our old tabby puss – / She wears black stockings – Ha! Ha! – What a pother, / ’Cause one old cat’s in mourning for another. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 22: ‘Cat, pussey’ — a pert coxcomical little lass, [...] But an ‘old Cat,’ is she who snarls and spits at those around her. | |
| Bengal Tiger 7: Horrid old cat! | |
| Diamond Necklace 15/2: We have a face ‘with a certain piquancy,’ the liveliest glib-snappish tongue, the liveliest kittenish manner (not yet hardened into cat-hood) with thirty pounds a year and prospects. | |
| Handy Andy 130: She was a little cantankerous cat and a dirty tell-tale. | |
| Flash (NY) 31 July n.p.: You nasty old cat. | |
| It Is Never Too Late to Mend III 117: Oh! you spiteful cat! | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: It would be better for that foolish old cat, Mother P—t [...] to stay at home . | |
| Paved with Gold 94: One with very shiny hair [...] answered the lady at the window, calling her ‘a d—d old cat’. | |
| Trail of the Serpent 360: ‘Don’t you go to flurry your tender constitution and do yourself a unrecoverable hinjury,’ the old cat made reply. | |
| Wild Boys of London I 106/1: ‘Mother Wilkins!’ ‘Where’s the cat?’ [...] ‘Yaa, hoo! yah, hoo!’ ‘Get home!’ ‘Nasty old thing!’ And such like were the cries. | |
| Chicago Street Gazette 22 Sept. n.p.: There is a dive on North LaSalle Street, called a wine hall, kept by an old procuress, and most any night you can find a congregation of boys, prostitutes, old cats, thieves and vags. | |
| Mr Barnes of N.Y. 185: Why, that foreign cat, Marina, of course! [...] she’s so deceitful she makes you think she loves you — but she loves him! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Dead Bird (Sydney) 8 Mar. 1/4: ‘Young men, beware of frolicsome lasses. Remember that the cruel, spiteful old cat is developed from the playful frisky young kitten’. | |
| No. 5 John Street 230: She dislikes the ‘’aughty and overbearin’ ways’ [...] of the ‘young cats’ at the counter. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. 20/1: This subsisting of self-constituted he and she cats to inquire into the troubles of the fellow-creatures and then leave them just where they were is a small and miserable Paul Pryism. | |
| Amblers 174: No wonder she puts on airs, the stuck-up cat! | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 12 Aug. 1/1: The Cochin Chinas behind the bars are invariably gossiping about some cat in the telephone department. | |
| ‘A Dramatic Forecast’ Sporting Times 31 Dec. 2/2: She’ll elope with the villain, the ‘cat!’. | |
| Abie the Agent 24 Nov. [synd. cartoon strip] [girl about girl] The cat! | |
| Ulysses 346: O yes, it cut deep because Edy had her own quiet way of saying things like that she knew would wound like the confounded little cat she was. | |
| Good Companions 91: But she really is an awful old cat. | |
| Redheap (1965) 279: ‘Go - go to that cat - tell her she can keep you’ . | |
| Mapp and Lucia (1984) 62: Tea-parties with a lot of old cats more in his line. Pshaw! | |
| They Drive by Night 59: Blimey, she’d like to show that cat Elsie up. | |
| Body in the Library (1959) 138: Nosey old cat. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Lonely Londoners 124: Moses ask a cat one night and she tell him how the black boys so nice. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 232: cat [...] 2. female. | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 cat n [...] 3. a female. (‘Look at that fine cat across the street’). | |
| Indep. on Sun. Real Life 20 Feb. 1: Her escort overheard two jealous cats criticising. |
(d) in attrib. uses .
| Sport (Adelaide) 10 Jan. 10/2: Susie D. is very lonely since her two cat-cobbers have gone away . | |
| Little Sister 134: ‘Nasty little scenes. They don’t mean a thing.’ ‘Cat talk.’. |
(e) a gossip.
| Wise-crack Dict. 11/2: Office cat – Office gossip. |
(f) a sexually attractive woman; in weak use, a girlfriend.
| Truth (Sydney) 30 Sept. 1/5: And the nose is outer jint of every othr cat in Wooloomooloo. | |
| Forbidden Fruit n.p.: Oh, you little love, you shall be all mine; that cat, beautiful as she is, shan't have you. | |
| Nocturnal Meeting 49: Your drawers are dripping, and it’s [i.e. vaginal secretions] running down your stockings. What a hot little cat. | |
| Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 10: BARTS obsolescent old Sydney larrikin slang: girls, young unmarried females: [...] SYNS – shicksa, clinah, donah, rabbit, moll, cat. | |
| Limehouse Nights 213: ‘My word, she’s a little goer, eh?’ ‘You’re right. At that age, too! Fast little cat.’. | |
| Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang Aug. 5: Lottie and another girl were talking in one of the bedrooms regarding the ‘cat’ who had vamped the temporary affections of Lottie's former beau. | |
| West Broadway 222: ‘So pleased to meet you!’ says this blond cat. ‘I think your husband is such a nice man!’. | |
| et al. CUSS. |
(g) (US gay) a lesbian.
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 133: Here are some obsolete or nearly obsolete terms which careless lexicographers continue to list as current […] cat. |
2. uses based on cat’s fur.
(a) the female pubic hair and genitals.
| Compleat Courtier 129: ’Tis for love of thy Scut, Which resembles a Cat or a Cole [...] then let thy black Cat So bemumble my Rat That we ne’er may Repent th’Old Game. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy II 82: Cry’d pray, Run, fetch John, / He’s the man that can, / When it does need it, / Best knows how to feed it, / Or gad you will starve my Cat. | |
| ‘They Say I’m a Black Little Hairy Thing’ in Flash Minstrel! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) I 116: They play with my tail and all that, / [...] / Then they call me an ugly cat, / Or a sly looking, Black little hairy thing. | |
| ‘Cat’ [broadsheet ballad] When he pull’d up her smock it made him to smile / Instead of a hen it appared like a cat / For there was her beard and her rough hairy back. | |
| Peeping Tom (London) 40 160/2: And the wanton little mousey / Goes — where I will not say. / The cat no more it fears, / For it burrows like a mole. | |
| ‘Who’ll Stroke My Cat?’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 70: I quiz each flat, / And sing as I pass, Who’ll stroke my Cat? | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| ‘Marry’s Cat’ in Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: Marry had a little cat, / With curly short black hair / And every place that Marry went, / That cat was always there. | |
| Maudie 70: ‘You fuck my cat: oh, just such nice cat, ten francs’. | |
| Pimp 79: The ‘peke’ was digging a washcloth into her armpits and ‘cat’. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 43: She dropped the soggy package from her cat on the cocktail table top. | |
| ‘Atomic Dog’ 🎵 Computer Games [album] Why must I feel like that / Oh, why must I chase the cat / Like the boys / When they’re out there walkin’ the streets / May compete / Nothin’ but the dog in ya. | |
| ‘Housewife’ 🎵 Slut I’m bout to nut and get up, go scrub yo’ cat. |
(b) a ladies’ muff; thus free a cat, to steal a muff.
| Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 162/1: Cat – a muff. | |
| Mysteries of London III 85/1: No. 4 A cat, six pair of shakester’s crabs and a cule . | |
| Magistrate’s Assistant (3rd edn) 444: To steal a muff – To free a cat. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 112: CAT, a lady’s muff; ‘to free a cat,’ i.e., steal a muff. | |
| Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1860]. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Cat - A muff. Skinning a Cat - Having a muff. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 15: Cat, a lady’s muff. |
3. based on other feline characteristics, e.g. quietness, disloyalty.
(a) (US Und.) one who researches potential robberies, plans them and poss. works as a lookout.
| S.F. Chronicle 6 Mar. 3: The ‘cat’ in Yegg parlance is a man shrewd enough to find ‘easy things’ where robbery may be safely committed. It is his duty to plan and maybe to stand on guard for a ‘rumble’. |
(b) (US prison) an informer.
| Grimhaven 33: ‘There never was six gees got together in the world without at least one of them being a cat!’ ‘Cat?’ ‘Sure. A fink, stool-pigeon.’. | |
| (ref. to 1920s) Over the Wall 245: He was known as a ‘cat’ – a man who would go to the bulls and betray his associates. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(c) (Aus. Und.) a ‘cat’ burglar.
| in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/5: Other English incorporations [in Australian slang] include: [...] . |
(d) a narcotics user.
| Guardian 10 Oct. 7: You see the addicts ducking past here with their hoods and caps pulled down real low. We call them ‘cats’ because they are always over fences and ducking round cars. |
4. an animal other than a cat.
| Rustlers of Beacon Creek (1935) 248: [of a horse] What a cat he is on his feet! | |
| ‘Song of the Pipeline’ in Botkin Folk-Say 106: We seen a big black ugly bear go into a cave. So I sez to Bub Bub, ‘Let’s get that big fuzzy-hide cat’. |
5. (Aus./N.Z./UK prison) a passive male homosexual; thus cats’ gaol, a prison where the majority of inmates are homosexual/transsexual; cats’ yard, a segregated area of the prison set aside for homosexuals or otherwise vulnerable prisoners [may also be abbr. SE catamite, a boy kept for homosexual purposes; but note pussy n. (10)].
| Monkey On My Back (1954) 99: The word cat, for example, was used to mean another boy, or a prostitute, or a man looking for a woman, or a homosexual. | |
| ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiii 4/3: cat: An effeminate homosexual [...] cat’s yard: Segregated section of the prison where the cats are left. Sometimes catty. | |
| Zimmer’s Essay 31: The big losers in prison sexual politik are the ‘cats,’ who will not accept feminine status, but who are weak and so are raped, or coerced into cock-sucking. | |
| Doing Time 129: There are very few true homosexuals in prison, the out and out ones. What we call a cat, a guy who wears make-up and plucks his eyebrows. | |
| Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Cat. A male person who takes the passive role in a homosexual relationship. A person who openly admits he is gay and submissive. An effeminate person. [Ibid.] Cats’ gaol. Traditionally Cooma Gaol (NSW), a prison for homosexual prisoners and particularly transexual prisoners. [Ibid.] Cat’s yard. Section of prison where homosexual prisoners are kept for their own protection. | |
| Lingo 115: Later in the l9th century came the term gussie and the 20th century has contributed many more, such as [...] triss, cat (perhaps a shortening of a more or less polite 19th-century term for homosexuals, catamite, though cat may also be used as Lingo for a prostitute). | |
| Intractable [ebook] Peter was a notorious cat and when an escort arrived at the jail he would wait in the showers and slug slew the new arrivals. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 68: [I]n prison slang in the 1950s, the word cat described a ‘straight acting’ but often sexually passive youth. |
In derivatives
(Aus.) mean-spirited.
| Sport (Adelaide) 25 Sept. 5/6: Min F., the veteran war horse, has beaten her three cattish cobbers for A.B. |
1. (US black) promiscuous.
| ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 28 June 9/7: Don’t let your pride keep you from his side. T’would be a shame to force him to some ‘catty’ dame. |
2. verbally unpleasant, ‘bitchy’.
| Aussie Bull 18: I will not go into the argument of whether women are ‘catty’ [...] towards members of their own ‘you know what’. |
In compounds
(N.Z.) a bar set aside for women and their escorts.
| N.Z. Observer 1 July 6: They could not help being brought into close personal contact with what some of them coarsely termed ‘the cats’ bar’ or ‘the mares’ nest’ [DNZE]. | |
| Gun in My Hand 23: He’s a randy old coot always hangin around the cats’ bar. | |
| Hangover 154: Somewhere in this place there’s what I believe they call a cat bar. You may prefer to pick up something out of there. | |
| Travelling Man 118: ‘What bar’s that?’ ‘The cat bar,’ said Eton Junior. ‘I’d rather walk into a lion’s den than a cat’s bar.’ [...] It was explained that this bar [...] was used by women [DNZE]. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 26/1: cat’s bar ladies’ bar or lounge bar of hotel where women permitted, as opposed to all-male traditional public bar. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
1. a fight between two (or more) women.
| Utah & Mormons 308: The object is to keep the women and babies, as much as possible, apart, and prevent those terrible cat-fights which sometimes occur, with all the accompaniments of Billingsgate, torn caps, and broken broom-sticks. | |
| Pacific Spectator 3 374: Finally she can involve herself in a screaming catfight with Mrs. Kendall, and in the course of it Mr. Palmer can learn [...] what makes her pupils so large, what is the source of her furious and demented energy. | |
| Young Wolves 137: I give a little gift of appreciation and what happens? A cat fight. | |
| Aussie Bull 34: [T]he two ‘ladies’ [...] were down on the road having a terrific ‘cat fight’ after smashing into each other. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 36: Three old biddies from Georgia getting into a catfight about boyfriends. | |
| 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 198: Adults, dealing with boys who carried high-powered guns, tended to shrug off such female violence as cat fights. | |
| ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 28: cat fight n. 1. A fight between women. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 39: By the time that night had turned high yaller they had the biggest catfight you could imagine. | |
| Devil’s Paw [ebook] I had a bad premonition that Wyatt’s party was going to be ruined by a catfight of epic proportions. [...] I knew it would hurt Wyatt terribly to have his sisters break into a hair–pulling brawl. | |
| Widespread Panic 189: I like your idea of a catfight at the Mocambo. |
2. (N.Z. prison) a fight between two drag queens.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 39/1: cat fight n. 3 a fight between ‘drag queens’ (transvestite males). |
3. (N.Z. prison) a cowardly attack.
| ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 28: cat fightn.2. An attack from behind. 3. A cowardly assault . | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 39/1: cat fight n. 1 an attack from behind. 2 a cowardly assault. |
(US) an attack of hysteria, usu. by a woman.
| Rock Island Daily Argus 14 May 5/3: Certain of those who compose the ‘infloonce’ had a cat fit yesterday when the erroneous information got into circulation [...] that the police were to wear ‘green’ helmets. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 9 Apr. 47/2: Castro throws his annual cat-fit. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 6 Nov. 46/2: She don’t know whether to throw another cat fit or faint. |
(US Und.) a brothel.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 6 July 13: The average polceman [...] is collecting ‘tribute’ from the apartment building ‘cat flats’ on his beat. |
see separate entry.
(UK Und.) an ageing, worn-out prostitute.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
(US) a (lesbian) cunnilinguist.
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 39: cat-lapper (Vulg.) A Cunnilinguist, usually in reference to a Lesbian. | |
| Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words 61: Catlapper is lesbian slang for cunnilinguist. |
a high-spirited whore or promiscuous woman.
| Cust. of Country I i: The rude claws of such a cat o’ mountain! [F&H]. | |
| Grateful Servant III iv: Fair, high-fed, glorious, and springing cat-a-mountains, ladies of blood, whose eyes will make a soldier melt, an he were composed of marble. | |
| Penny-Wise n.p.: The poor catamountains in Turnbull who venture upon the pikes of damnation for single money. | |
| Gentleman of Venice III iv: What man of menaces Dare look awry upon my cat-a-mountain? |
a party consisting of women only.
| Sl. & Its Analogues. | |
| Highland Recorder (Highland Co. VA) 23 Aug. 3/1: A social, which was given the special name of a ‘cat party’ was given [...] by Misses Phoebe and Mabel Jones. | |
| W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Jan. 1/1: Actions for slanders are promised in consequence of her dissemination of cat-party candards. | |
| Arizona Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 11 Nov. 15/3: Miss Elizabeth Kendrick entertained with a cat party in honor of her cousin Miss Walter. | |
| Holbrook News (Navajo, Co., AZ) 27 Oct. 5/3: The ladies of the Obesity Division of the Deuce and Needle club [...] held a cat party. | |
| True Drunkard’s Delight 246: Weak tipple, swish-swash, fit only for drinking at a cat-, hen-, or bitch-party. | |
| DSUE. |
(UK Und.) a drunken fighting woman.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
(US) a brothel.
| ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 573: cats’-nest, n. A house of ill repute. | |
| Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 112: Legalized cat-shops. Nice set-up. |
1. a travelling brothel.
| Columbia Jrnl (NE) 30 Jan. 6/2: The senate has passed a measure that its author calls the ‘cat wagon’ bill. It places wagons used for immoral purposes in the same category [etc.]. | |
| Red Cloud Chief (Webster Co., NE) 2 Dec. 5/4: Two gentlemen [...] were taken into custody [...] after a shooting affray at a ‘cat wagon’. | |
| Milk and Honey Route 163: The ‘cat wagon’ is an ancient institution of the harvest belt. They usually go about, two ladies and a procurer. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Down in the Holler 108: The vans used by travelling prostitutes are known as cat-wagons. | |
| (con. 1870s) Why the West was Wild 15: The existence of portable brothels or ‘cat wagons’ [...] seem to have given the military authorities particular trouble. | |
| Maledicta IX 149: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] cat wagon (vehicle used by touring pros). |
2. a van used to take prostitutes to prison.
| Cops 67: Driving around in the cat wagon and picking them up in bunches [HDAS]. |
In phrases
a genteel female beggar who asks for money at people’s houses, often backing her request with a (fake) testimonial from a charity.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
of a man, to have sexual intercourse.
| Peeping Tom (London) 12 48/3: [advert] the wanton warbler — Feeding the Cat. |
SE in slang uses
In derivatives
(US) elegant, stylish .
| ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 22: catish. Stylish, elegant. [...] ‘She’s a very catish lady.’. |
In compounds
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
(US) a wrinkle in one’s clothing.
| North Carolina Folklore 1 525: Catface [...] A wrinkle or pucker in clothing ironed when too dry . | |
| Caged Bird 48: I had to iron seven starched shirts and not leave a cat’s face anywhere. | |
| Talkin 258: Cat faces, wrinkles in clothes when ironing them, as in ‘Chile, you call yo’self done iron this, with all these cat faces in it?’. |
see separate entries.
(US) a tantrum.
| ‘Dialect Speech in Nebraska’ in DN III:i 60: catfit, catnip-fit, n. Same as conniption fit. | |
| Where The Trail Divides 110: Mary’d have a cat-fit if she knew [DA]. | |
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 163: He’ll throw cat-fits all over the house. |
1. weak or diluted spirits [sense 1c].
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 1 Sept. 3/6: The language of the London East-end pub [...] ‘Cat flaps’ and ‘Wet Quakers’ — Drinkers of diluted stuff. |
2. a bisexual person [it swings both ways].
| ‘The Nice Bit’ in ScotsGay Mag. Issue 22 🌐 Who actually likes the terms ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ or ‘bisexual’ or ‘transgender’ or ‘straight’ anyway. Do you prefer ‘queer’ or ‘dyke’ or ‘catflap’? |
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
1. tea or coffee; thus cat-lap shop, a breakfast room.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cat lap, tea. |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | |
| Americans Abroad II iii: I can’t say I like your catlap as we call it in our parts. | |
| A Quarter to Nine Act I: (sees the tea equipage.) What is that I behold? [...] what your brother Jonathan calls ‘your catlap and cow-juice’. | |
| Young Tom Hall (1926) 73: We’ll have a light breakfast here — slops (catlap, you know) and so on — then drive there and have a regular tuck-out. | |
| Young Tom Hall (1926) 99: Which is the way to the cat-lap shop? [...] The cat-lap shop — the breakfast-room, to be sure. | |
| Aurora Floyd II 77: ‘I’ve mashed the tea for ’ee,’ said the ‘Softy’; ‘I thought you’d like a coop.’ The trainer shrugged his shoulders. ‘I can’t say I’m particular attached to the cat-lap,’ he said, laughing. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Cat-lap - A contemptuous expression for weak drink. | |
| Savage London 148: We won’t have no weak cat-lap to-night, Bell. The tea on the hob there is made rare and strong. | |
| press cutting in Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 66/2: A vast crowd, but not much animation; plenty of card tables, but few players; no supper, but plenty of soup; also ‘catlap’ in abundance. | |
| Taunton Courier 26 Apr. 10/2: Cat-lap — Tea. |
2. any form of weak drink, incl. watered-down alcohol.
| Cricketers of My Time (1902) 96: Punch! — not your new Ponche à la Romaine, or Ponche à la Groseille, or your modern cat-lap milk punch — punch be-devilled, but good, unsophisticated John Bull stuff. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn). | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| ‘’Arry on the Battle of Life’ in Punch 21 Sept. in (2006) 136: Says he, ‘Is it lotion or catlap?’. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 16: Cat Lap, weak drink. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 25 Nov. 42/2: Weak tea is unpalatable; so he styles it cat lap. |
3. milk.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. | |
| Flash Mirror 19: Out-and-out cat lap is serv’d out in regular tin conweyancers by the imperial kevart [...] Any swell covess that sluices in warm cat-lap, may hear of a buyer who will [...] take it away. | |
| Paved with Gold 280: He ought to have stuck in a few squeakers climbing up dad’s knee while he’s gorging his cat-lap and pannam. | |
| Pink ’Un and Pelican 151: We haven’t done a milkman yet. Who keeps the old man in cat-lap? | |
| Minneapolis Jrnl (MN) 15 Dec. 28/1: If your babe screams fire at night, it might be well to see what the milkman is doing to his little cat-lap. |
a casual, perfunctory wash.
| This Gutter Life 164: My God, Jerry, it’s awful, having a cat’s lick in a basin! |
see separate entry.
(US black) a cat burglar.
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 110: That’s what all you catmen say. | |
| (con. 1940s) Autobiog. (1968) 177: You couldn’t imagine a known cat-man thief regularly exposing himself as one of the most popular people in [the bar]. |
(US prison) a relatively short sentence.
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Cat Nap: Relatively short sentence. |
see separate entries.
(US) a back road.
| Persons in Hiding 178: By this time the back or ‘cat’ roads used by bank robbers were choked with snow. | |
| High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 314: We never used anything but the cat roads on a get-away and they had mud two feet deep on ’em. |
In compounds
anything exceptional, superlative.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 25: You say you heard the story of the flounder’s head? Yep — it’s the cat’s. | |
| ‘The Current Expansion of Sl.’ in AS II:3 145: The approbative ‘She’s the cat’s,’ and its variations. | |
| Downfall 73: Gee, Dick, that’s the cat’s. | |
| Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulation Issue) 125: The cat’s adj. interesting; superior. |
see also cat’s meow n.; cat’s pyjamas n.; cat’s whiskers n.
see separate entries.
anything exceptional, superlative.
| Blow Negative! 228: ‘Where did you have an art professor, Lydia?’ ‘Radcliffe.’ ‘What?’ ‘Isn’t that the cat’s balls?’. | |
| House of God 127: Howard, who knew that being a doc really was the cat’s balls after all. | |
| (ed.) Best Short Plays 152: Denis: Unbelievable! Marvelous! Sammy: Now isn’t that the cat's balls —. |
(US black) common sense, intelligence.
| Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, NY) 1 July 134/4: I wonder if it might not be a blessing [...] if more people had what might be called ‘cat sense’. | |
| (con. 1930s) Lawd Today 125: That woman ain’t got cat sense! |
(Aus.) to fool around.
| Unknown Industrial Prisoner 143: These men are trained for years, they know more than us, they’re bent over books and calculus and things we’ve never heard of while we’re out cat-shagging around and learning to get on the piss. | |
| (con. 1941) Gunner 248: Now, let’s stop cat-shagging about and get started. |
1. a halfpenny roll of bread.
| Life and Character of Moll King 11: Let me see, There’s a Grunter’s Gig, is a Si-Buxom; two Cat’s Heads, a Win [etc.]. |
2. the female breast.
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
1. (US) lit. cat excrement, a disgusting or objectional circumstance or individual; also attrib.
| House of Slammers 121: That’s a crock [...] a stinking, full-to-the-brim crock of unburied cat shit. | |
| Tin Wife 65: I wouldn’t ask you to do something terrible. This is catshit. Forget the punk. | |
| at www.xanga.com 16 Oct. 🌐 Paris stole marykates bf, and i’m not too happy about that. But i reckon if a catshit chick steals ur shipping heir its not that bad, and thats just what paris is. catshit. |
2. nonsense, esp. in the form of suposedly ‘mystical’ pronouncements.
| Whores for Gloria 37: Man don’t bother me with input and that catshit like some beady-eyed chaplain. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 98: [H]ard-nosed Uncle Ern was never the type to go along with dreams or premonitions or any other suchlike catshit [ibid.] 173: When asked by the press boys why he was giving his favourite hoop of ten years the heave-ho, the old boy [...] came out with some sort of prophetic Eastern catshit like: ‘The winds and the dunes make many courses’. |
1. a second-rate silk hat.
| Tom Brown’s School-days (1896) 78: Tom is arrayed [...] in a regulation cat-skin at seven-and-sixpence. |
2. a military busby or ‘bearskin’.
| Islington Gaz. 16 Nov. 3/4: ‘Remember the day on which the defendant first appeared in his cat skin-hat’. |
3. (Irish) the outer crust or end of a loaf of bread.
| Down All the Days 26: They dipped thick cuts of dry bread and the hard ‘heels’ of loaves which were also called ‘catskins’. | |
| Down Cobbled Streets, A Liberties Childhood 71: Secretly I liked the rubbery feel of the catskin, but as often as not it was a slice which my mother discarded. |
anything or anyone exceptional, superlative.
| Eau Claire Leader (WI) 16 May 12/6: ‘Isn’t this hat of mine the cat’s kittens’. | |
| Born to Be (1975) 204: London was the cat’s kittens. |
see separate entry.
(US) facial hair, whiskers.
| Davy Crockett’s Almanack n.p.: The war the men with cat smellers on thar upper lips [HDAS]. |
see separate entry.
a superior person, or someone who poses as such.
| Wadsworth Gas Attack 5 Jan. n.p.: I was the cat’s mitts, as I doped it out . |
a dismissive description of an individual or a response to a question that is considered impertinent or over-intrusive.
| [ | | Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 15: Her’s the cat’s mother [...] Said to one who uses the possessive her of the third person instead of the nominative she]. |
| St Cloud Times (MN) 7 Sept. 12/2: ‘She — the cat’s mother,’ Mrs Hainess murmured. | |
| Cockney 272: Who’s she? – the cat’s mother? | |
| Out Goes She 37: Who’s SHE? / The cat’s mother! | |
| All in! All in! 22: She did it / Who’s she? / The cat’s mother! | |
| All of us There 51: ‘Who’s he?’ she said. ‘The cat’s father?’. | |
| Liza’s England (1996) 134: ‘She’s after us, Dad.’ ‘She’s the cat’s grandmother. Say who you mean.’]. | |
| (con. 1970) Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark II i: noel: Who did? Me? dolores: No, the cat’s aunt. | |
| Deeper Darkness 58: He sometimes referred to Sam's mother as her. Laura would always retort, ‘Who’s her, the cat's mother?’ . |
1. anything exceptional, superlative.
| Spring & All in Coll. Poems (1991) 216: Our orchestra / is the cat’s nuts. | |
| (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 70: ‘Ain’t this hunkydory?’ whispered Ike. ‘It’s the cat’s nuts, Ike.’. | |
| Old Bunch (1946) 189: He forgot his hat! That’s the cat’s nuts! |
2. a superior person, or someone who poses as such.
| Reporter 32: At Welf Anjou’s funeral [...] they jumped Catsnuts Maloney for trying to make a grave picture. | |
| Old Bunch (1946) 123: Is she the cat’s nuts! Boy, I could go fur her! | |
| Bones (2011) 179: She thinks you're the cat’s nuts, too. | |
| Best Known Unknown 145: I had the top down and I felt like the cat’s nuts! |
any form of weak alcoholic drink.
| ‘Guestbook’ on Jever.de 🌐 When I lived in Berlin in the early 80s, I really liked Jever Pils, but only ever get to drink it when I visit Germany which is infrequent. It is impossible to get this beer in Australia which is a great shame because most aussie beer is cat’s pee. | |
| And One for Luck n.p.: I’m sure the landlord waters the beer. It's like bloody cat’s pee. No ’ead at all. |
any form of weak drink.
| Tharunka (Kensington, NSW) 11 Sept. 11/1: And there’s nothing worse than downing cat’s piss. | |
| ‘TV Ads’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Resch’s is the worst beer on the market. It tastes like tomcat’s piss. | |
| ‘Letter from America’ 31 Oct. at OxfordStudent.com 🌐 Better than the usual American beer, though, for which I’m told the official term is ‘cat’s piss’. | |
| Seven Ways to Kill a Cat 9: ‘What's weird is the bottle’s legit, but I’m guessing it didn't come with this cat’s piss in it’. | |
| ‘Letter from America’ 31 Oct. at OxfordStudent.com 🌐 Better than the usual American beer, though, for which I’m told the official term is ‘cat’s piss’. | |
| I Am Already Dead 106: [of lager] Lee [...] whispered [...] ‘Cat’s piss,’ just loud enough for the bartender to hear. |
1. to fall spreadeagled on the ground.
| Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
2. to beat severely.
| Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
(UK juv.) the elongated end of a burning cigarette, caused by its being shared and smoked fast.
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 cats prick n. overly elongated burning end of a cigarette that’s created when a group of people pass it round and smoke it very quickly. Imagine 5 or 6 lads in the boy’s bogs passing round a Benson & Hedges, By the time it’s almost finished the burning ember is about an inch long, and someone would always exclaim, ‘look at the fuckin’ cat’s prick on that!’. |
see separate entry.
very thin legs; thus catsticked adj.
| Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 107: His belly is the counter-part of his back, and seems to poise the machine, and keep it in equilibrio on his cat-stick legs. | |
| Ladies Delight 23: Think Strumpets Saints, or catstick’d Beau a Mars. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cat sticks, thin legs, compared to sticks with which boys play at catsticks. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. |
gin.
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Sl. Dict. |
see separate entry.
a general term of derision.
| posting on ComputerContractor.net 14 Jun. 🌐 A degree in the university of life you cat wanker, something you wouldn’t know anything about! Grow up...a degree, like marriage, is just a bit of paper, it shows that you can remember crap from text books. |
(Aus.) one who whinges over their misfortunes.
| Sport (Adelaide) 23 Apr. 5/1: Why some of my patients — beg parding, I mean clients — if they do a dollar in at the races are always so bally mournful and pull such long faces that it would be only a fair thing to charge them extra for a shave. Wishter goodness these cat whippers could only borrow a few smiles from you occasionally. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 13 Feb. 4/3: One of the chief cat-whippers in Melbourne today must be Scobie Breasley [...] Breasley saw Kintore donkey-lick a field of youngsters in the Federal Stakes, and had salt rubbed into his wound when the Lewis cuddy Valour curled the mo in the Bond Handicap. |
(US black) cheap, rotgut whisky.
| cited in Levet Talkin That Talk (2010) 104/2: Drinking what they call cat-whiskey [...] some call it corn, but it’s cat-whiskey. | |
| From Rebellion to Submission 190: Some said the stuff was made with corn, yeast, and battery acid. If a dog, cat, or rat fell in the brew, they’d be drinking that too; no one was sure what was in it. It was known as cat whiskey; it was like a stealthy cat pouncing on you before you know it. You don't fight it; you just pass out. Cat whiskey steals one’s thoughts. In the middle of a sentence thoughts are lost. It eats the liver and the stomach. | |
| (con. 1930s) Chasing the White Dog 120: He charged 35 cents for a half-pint of whiskey. This was ‘first-made’ whiskey, that’s what I call it: tom-cat whiskey. It wasn’t bonded liquor. | |
| (con. 1900s) Rooster 111: With the demand for good, mountainmade cat whiskey greater than ever, accusations of stealing whiskey stills and caches led to many a brawl. |
In phrases
the female pubic hair and vagina.
| ‘Toasts’ in Gentleman’s Private Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 384: A black cat with its throat cut. | |
| [ | | song title in Flash Olio in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 190: My Black Cat Is Pleased When I Stroke It. |
| [ | | Peeping Tom (London) 17 68/3: The lad [...] uttered a loud yell and run down stairs saying ‘his mistress had cut her throat from ear to ear’]. |
| Central Sl. 10: black cat, the [...] ‘I dance for tricks and let them see the black cat.’. | |
| Dict. of Obscenity etc. 60: A group of words for the vagina and vaginal labia which draw on the imagery of cut flesh [...] cat with its throat cut, and beef curtains. | |
| ‘Muffy’s World of Vagina Euphemisms’ at Starma.com 🌐 Black cat with its throat cut. | |
| Touch Wood n.p.: My Daddy always calls it ‘the black cat with its throat cut’. |
(Aus.) to rain heavily.
| Lockie Leonard, Legend (1998) 130: It’s cattin’ and doggin’ out there. |
an unhappy marriage, in which the partners fight like cat and dog (occas. dog and cat); also of non-marital partnerships (see cites 1825, 1867) ; note ad hoc var. in cit. 1954.
| New Brawle 1: Jack being jealous of Doll his bozzy Wife, / Like Dogge and Catt, they always live at strife. | |
| [ | | ‘Progress of Love’ in Works (1759) VI 154: And with exact poetic justice; / For John is landlord, Phillis hostess: / They keep at Staines the old Blue Boar, / Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore]. |
| Gentleman’s Mag. Jan. 34/2: Ill-match’d couples are more than once said to lead a cat and dog life. | |
| ‘Search after Happiness’ in The Sale-Room V 1 Feb. xvii: John Bull, whom, in their years of early strife, She wont to lead a cat-and-doggish life. | |
| Kenilworth I 25: A cat-and-dog life she led with Tony. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 22 May 134/1: ‘He lives like dog and cat with the woman he keeps! [...] skrimmiging [...] they’ur always at it —barrin when he’s out‘. | |
| Handley Cross (1854) 94: After an evening of this agreeable dog and cat-ing [...] the gallant Captain at length made his adieus. | |
| Sportsman 15 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] Was therre ever a literary guild that did not lead a cat-and-dog life? | |
| Cumberland Pacquet 30 Mar. 7/2: He’d a bloomin’ young wife, hey, i’ lesser a year — An’ snarlin’ cat un’ dog life they led. | |
| Sportsman (London) 29 Jan. 4/1: [T]hose who have lived cat-and-dog life are rejoicing [...] at being once more restored to freedom. | |
| ‘I Never Says Nothing to Nobody’ in Laughing Songster 149: In short, quite a cat and dog life. | |
| [ | | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 9 Nov. 3/3: [T]he couple lived a feline and canine life, finally separated and Mrs. Crenshaw applied tor a divorce]. |
| Things I Have Seen II 146: The young lady and her fiancé were of hopelessly contrary dispositions, and [...] they would lead a cat-and-dog life. | |
| ‘Outside and Declined’ Sporting Times 8 Aug. 1/3: ‘What a cat and dog life theirs is!’ very possibly may come / From the lips of those less fortunately mated; / For, in spite of all our squabbles, we are happier than some / Who proclaim their bliss aloud. | |
| Darkey Dialect Discourses 14: Some leads a cat and dog life. | |
| Seven Poor Men of Sydney 33: They led a cat-and-dog life and she tried to get a doctor to certify that he was not all there. | |
| Sweet Money Girl 51: I just had to get a break [...] to make up for my ex, Ronny, and the cat-and-dog year we’d been married. | |
| ‘The Fishing-Boat Picture’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 73: You miss a woman when she’s been living with you [...] for six years, no matter what sort of cat-and-dog life you led together. |
(US) used of an especially hard penile erection.
| Song of Young Sentry 157: I could sure as hell plow with mine. It gets so hard a cat couldn't scratch it. | |
| Elite/Elate Poems 66: He used to get so hard / a cat / couldn’t / scratch it. | |
| Green Monday 201: All I ended up with was a death wish and a hard-on that a cat couldn’t scratch! | |
| Godson 127: [H]e had a horn that hard a cat couldn’t scratch it. | |
| Dream Man 41: From the minute she had turned those dark blue eyes on him, he’d had a boner so hard a cat couldn't scratch it. | |
| ‘My Brother’s Cum’ Pt 5 on Nifty Erotic Stories Archive 🌐 I was also unaffordable as my cock was also so hard that ‘a cat could not scratch it.’. | |
| Plead the Baby Act [ebook] The picnic hamper hampered his movement but did a great job concealing something a cat could not scratch the entire length of […] the North Circular. |
(US) something to be suspicious or wary about; thus buy a cat in a sack, to buy something that one has not actually inspected.
| in DARE. |
a traitor, one who changes sides to advance their self-interest; thus turn cat in the pan, to inform, to betray, to change sides.
| Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 18: These cheaters turnd cat in the pan, giving to divers vile, patching shifts, an honest and goodly title, calling it by the name of a law. | |
| Damon and Pithias (1571) Ciiii: Damon smatters as well as he of craftie Phylosophie, And can tourne Cat in the panne very pretily. | |
| Marriage Between Wit and Wisdom III i: I am as very a turncote as the wethercoke of Poles; For now I will calle my name Due Disporte. So, so, finely I can turne the catte in the pane. | |
| Four Letters Confuted in Works II (1883–4) 286: If it bee a home booke at his first conception, let it be a home booke still, and turne not cat in the panne. | |
| Essays (of Cunning) (Arber) 441: There is a Cunning, of the Cat in the Pan, which is, when that which a Man says to another, he laies it, as if Another had said it to him [F&H]. | |
| ‘The Committee of Safety’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 99: Charles Fleetwood is first and leads up the Van, / Whose counterfeit Zeal turns Cat in the pan. | |
| Maronides (1678) VI 54: Dear Friend, quo he, what makst thou here? / [...] / Has Phoebus thus turn’d Cat in Pan? | |
| Dialogue Between a Yorkshire Alderman and a Salamanca Doctor 2: I can turn cat in the Pan as well as any Whip Poet. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cat-in-pan turn’d, of one that has chang’d Sides or Parties. | |
| ‘The Vicar of Bray’ [ballad] When George in pudding time came o’er, / And moderate men look’d big, sir, / I turned a cat-in-pan once more, / And so became a Whig, sir [N]. | |
| Newcastle Courant 23 May 2/1: Tonsor being poor [...] turn’d Cat-in-pan. | |
| Caledonian Mercury 5 Feb. 2/1: Of Men who [...] at Toads, and lick up Spittle, Turn Cat in Pan, be Dupes [...]. | |
| Leeds intelligencer 25 Mar. 2/3: Here lies Thurot, bold buccanier [...] / Who weary of this humble station, / To raise the glory of his nation / Turn’d cat in pan. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 57: jove has now turn’d cat i’th’ pan. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cat in pan, to turn cat in pan, to change sides or party; supposed originally to have been to turn cate or cake in pan. |
| Old Mortality in Waverley II (1855) 561: O, this precious Basil will turn cat in the pan with any man! | |
| Westmoreland Gaz. 24 Aug. 3/4: He was first a Tory, then a Whig; next a Yellow, now a Blue. How often he may, hereafter, ‘turn the cat in the pan,’ depends [...] upon the length of his life . | |
| Chester Chron. 20 May 2/7: Why the late government should be [...] in the unenviable position of either turning cat in the pan or saying nothing. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Burlington Wkly Free Press (VT) 5 Apr. 1/5: Those persons and interests [...] have as by magic [...] turned cat in the pan. | |
| Sportsman 22 Apr. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [H]e also tells us of sort of ‘cunning for a man’s self,’ which in England call the turning of the cat in the pan. | |
| Sl. Dict. 111: Cat-in-the-Pan a traitor, or turncoat – derived by some from the Greek ???????, altogether; or – and more likely – from cake in pan, a pan-cake, which is frequently turned from side to side. | |
| New Ulm Wkly Rev. 8 Sept. 1/4: He talks of turning cat in pan. | |
| Newcastle Courant 16 Sept. 6/5: Dandy must have been copped [...] Will he turn cat in the pan do you think? | |
| N.Y. Dly Tribune 26 June 7/4: You catch Whitmore and then force him to turn cat-in-the-pan. |
(US black) to wander the streets aimlessly, to stay out all night, to hide away.
| Duke 154: Maybe it was that catting out that did it, made me feel all better inside. | |
| Monkey On My Back (1954) 99: To cat out was to sneak away. | |
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 19: That catting was staying away from all night was all I knew about the term. [Ibid.] 73: A new suit [...] was usually the first thing I would steal when I was going to cat out. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 58: ‘Catting. No place to stay’. |
the labia minora.
| Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 1834: Some terms that have survived this ignorance include [...] double-sucker, ear between the legs, cat’s head cut open, etc., for the lesser lip. |
see separate entries.
very fast.
| Peveril of the Peak II 199: She did go up the rigging like a cat up a chimney. |
(US) a general intensifier, e.g. very fast, very successful.
| Dark Hazard (1934) 238: Yes sir. I had top kennel at Baden, where they pay real money. I been going like who-shot-the-cat. |
of a man, to be dominated by one’s wife.
| Proverbs (2nd edn) 68: He lives under the sign of the cats foot. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To live under the cat’s foot, to be under the dominion of a wife, hen-pecked. |
| Pvbs of our Ancestors C3: E- of S--a--n. He lives under the sign of the cat’s foot. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Life of Charles H. Spurgeon xx: [chapter heading] He Lives under the Sign of the Cat’s Foot. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Tiger in the House 140: He lives under the sign of the cat’s foot (his wife scratches him). |
1. in hiding.
| Duke 133: A guy is on the cat there, a run-away. He’s got a room. |
2. staying out at night.
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 73: When I was on the cat, I knew I was going to get caught sooner or later. |
to wait to see how events turn out before making one’s own decision or move.
| Romp in Eng & Amer. Stage XIV 30: Oh, are you there, mr. captain? then I see how the cat jumps. | |
| ‘The Tortoise-shell Tom Cat’ in Vocal Mag. 1 Feb. 44: I see how the cat jumps now! | |
| in Croker Papers I (1884) 319: The numerous rumours which reach me in this quarter are so varying that had I time, I believe I would come to London merely to see how the cat jumped. | |
| Clockmaker I 78: Thinks I to myself, a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse, I see how the cat jumps. | |
| Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 18: Oh, ho, says I to myself, is dat de way de cat jump? – now I see how de land lay. | |
| My Novel (1884–5) II Bk XII 474: No — I don’t promise. I must first see how the cat jumps. | |
| Yorks. Gaz. 29 Sept. 8/2: Just as he sees which way the cat jumps will he determine as to the extent of his demands. | |
| Western Mail (S. Glamorgan) 22 June 2/9: The world is waiting to see which way the cat jumps. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 7/1: Dan O’Conner, in a speech, / Is certain Dalley to impeach; / Levien is waiting in the dumps / To see which way the pussy jumps. | |
| Seth’s Brother’s Wife 280: P’raps you kin git an idee by this time haow the Jay caounty cat’s goin’ to jump. | |
| Kansas Agitator (Garnett, KS) 4 Jan. 1/3: We are sorry to see a ‘leading Populist paper’ holding back [...] until it sees ‘which the cat jumps’. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 92: Wait to See How the Cat Jumps, watching one’s opportunity. | |
| Morn. Post (London) 19 May 4/5: Germany is lying low to see which way the cat jumps. | |
| Phillipsburg Herald (KS) 19 July 4/1: It seems to be bonds which ever way the cat jumps. | |
| Ballygullion 188: ‘Thin I began to see how the cat was jumpin’,’ sez the sargint, rubbin’ his hands. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 24/1: The States were urged to back the Commonwealth; but the States were cantankerous and, anyhow, they wanted to see the cat jump first. | |
| Dundee Courier 14 Aug. 4/2: The nationalisation of all the mines without delay is Mr Smith’s call, and it will be interesting to which the way the cat jumps now. | |
| Ulysses 596: If, as time went on, that turned out to be how the cat jumped all he could personally say on the matter was that [...] it was highly advisable in the interim to try to make the most of both countries. | |
| Yorks. Post & Leeds Intelligencer 31 Oct. 9/3: The Socialists have used such slippery methods [...] they can claim any credit or disown whichever way the cat jumps. | |
| Derby Dly Teleg. 27 Mar. 3/3: One can hardly blame him for [...] waiting to see which way the cat will jump. | |
| Riverslake 189: Anyway, it won’t worry me much which way the cat jumps. | |
| Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 38: I’ve got to see which way this mother-raping cat is jumping. | |
| Born from Within 121: Many of their colleagues sit on the fence and are waiting to see which way the cat jumps. | |
| Barros Pawns 47: We’ll see which way the cat jumps. Obviously, for you and me, there’s this other matter. |
see something n.
In exclamations
see separate entry.
(US) a mild oath.
| ‘The Golden Ball of the Argonauts’ in Big League (2004) 72: My cats! Ain’t she heavy! |