cat n.5
1. (orig. US black, also kat) a person; also as term of address.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Uncle Daniel’s Story of ‘Tom’ Anderson 99: Dis darky was done gone when dey comed [...] De cat done gone. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sport (Adelaide) 22 May 4/5: Jimmy R. is rather fat, / With all he’s not a love, / And he’s quite a silly cat, / Whilst playing ‘forty love’ . | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 64: It’s you kind of cats that make it tough on us, buyin’ chuck. | |
 | in Chicago Defender 11 Apr. 10: White society blades and dazzling women [...] made it a point to slum at Joyland [i.e. a downmarket Harlem club] where they could watch and mix with brownskinned ‘cats’. | |
| ‘Harlem’ 2: He said: ‘You aint a good follow like the other cats. You wont take me up to Harlem and show me around.’. | |
| letter 2 Jan. in Charters I (1995) 141: I heard some of the cats discussing him in the john – cats with beards and artistic-looking manners and real Bohemian hipness, etc. | |
| ‘Dig that Crazy Corpse’ in Pursuit Mar. (2008) 156: Cat, I’m pleased I got through to you. Cat, listen. | |
| Always Leave ’Em Dying 8: I gathered that hubby had been a lusty cat. | |
| ‘A Sound of Screaming’ Lover Man 45: All the kats would gather round / And dice would roll across the ground. | |
| Free-Lance Pallbearers 97: Man, those kats are always in a hurry. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Oz 20 31/1: Tradition says that they’re supposed to flatten these cats who are wearing their colours unless they’ve been officially recognised. | |
| Semi-Tough 12: I believe a cat could hang around with you and get hisself some white pussy. | |
| Life and Times of Little Richard (1985) 56: When I walked in, there’s this cat in this loud shirt, with hair waxed up six inches above his head. | |
| Guardian Editor 23 July 19: He’s one of the most peaceful cats I know, one of the nicest guys. | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 63: Somehow these cats retain the flip, immediate wit and observational flair of rap. | |
| ShortList (London) 22 May 32: When these cats come back from Iraq, we’re going to have some hell on these streets. | |
| Life 8: Long as you knew cats, you was cool. | |
| (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 23: Why would mellow cat Mel Parker own a fucking roscoe? | |
| Mail & Guardian Online (SA) 10 Nov. 🌐 The front row are in stitches. So are the cats at the back with bulges under their coats. | |
| Straight Dope [ebook] I notice Claude, a cat I know. |
2. (orig. US black) in orig. jazz-orientated uses .
(a) a jazz musician.
| New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 253: cat (n.): musician in swing band. | |
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | |
| ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 277: cat. A musician; a man. | |
| Seize the Time 22: I would go with these other cats who were musicians. | |
| Night People 17: ‘Man, I can’t play no saxophone,’ this cat was saying. | |
| Indep. Rev. 2 Sept. 5: Musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie (as in ‘that little dizzy cat from down South.’). | |
| Indep. Rev. 21 Jan. 13: He’s one of the main cats on his instrument for his generation. |
(b) a smartly dressed, fashion conscious man; thus sharp cat.
| ‘The Basement Blues’ 🎵 He don’t, he can’t / Hang round with dicty cats / Don’t go gay-cattin’ / ’Round in Buffet Flats. | |
| ‘Idioms of the Present-Day American Negro’ in AS XIII:4 Dec. 314/1: Cat. City slicker without conceit. | |
| ‘Lunching at the Ritzmore’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 16: Strutting Filipinos, the sharp-cat Mexican youths in their ultra drapes. | |
| Augie March (1996) 494: A former undertaker and also zoot-suiter and cat. | |
| Imabelle 29: The barbershop where the sharp cats got their nappy kinks straightened with a mixture of Vaseline and potash lye. | |
| Rage in Harlem (1969) 29: The barber shop where the sharp cats got their kinks straightened with a mixture of Vaseline and potash lye. | |
| Street Gangs 222: Cat A sharp fellow. |
(c) a jazz fan.
| ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 48: rhythm cats, cats, satchels. Persons interested in the technique of dance bands. Roughly equivalent to jitterbug above, except that this term applies to both musicians and non-musicians. | |
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 9 Apr. 11/1: It’s population is worshipping at the swing shrine [and] way down under [Boston’s] hoity-toity exterior there’s more than just a bit of ‘Cat’. | |
| ‘Let Me at the Enemy—An’ George Brown’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 36: All down the line the cats latched on, shoulders rocked, heads bobbed, the joint jumped. My queen ’gan bouncin’ out her twelve dollar dress. | |
| , | | DAS. |
3. a user of crack cocaine.
| (con. 1982–6) Cocaine Kids (1990) 22: Blacks have proved they can organize and sell the shit, but the Indians don’t know how to deal with the Black cats. | |
| Scholar 16: Cory ain’t no cat. [...] He hates crack man, says it’s poison from white people. | |
| Guardian Rev. 29 Mar. 2: Bloke kept calling us cats [...] ‘You cats did this,’ ‘you cats did that’, know what I mean? Where we’re from, a cat means a crackhead. | |
| ‘Low But Bait’ 🎵 In the trap with the cats / Cling film and vas / Cockroaches and rats. | |
| What They Was 102: Them man stash their food here all pebbled up so it’s ready for the cats . |
In compounds
(orig. US black) fashionable clothing as favoured by jazz fans.
| [song title] Put Your Cat Clothes On. |
1. (US black) a strutting style of walking, intended to emphasize one’s pride, independence and masculinity.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 25 Feb. 17: The ‘hip cat’ [...] drops the index finger of one hand stiffly down and then inclines the upper portion of his body into a quarter-stoop and struts stiff-leggedly. | |
| Black Talk. |
2. (US prison) the position of standing in front of a parole board.
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 16: Even before Carlotta’s time on the catwalk that day, they’d kept her in the SHU. |
In phrases
(US black) a lookout man.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
(US black) a playboy.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
see dig v.3
a person as needed in a given situation; usu. in negative.
| letter 11 Sept. in Dennett Lincoln and the Civil War (1939) 198: Politicians are strong yet & he is not ‘their kind of cat.’. |