Kilkenny cat

Etymology

Referring to an old story about two cats who fought to the death and ate each other up such that only their tails were left.

Noun

Kilkenny cat (plural Kilkenny cats)

1. A tenacious fighter.
   • 1979, Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels, page 66:

     Yet for my father the war was a source of considerable inner conflict; much as he detested Nazism he was psychologically incapable of desiring a British victory. (Very likely his secret wish was that Germany and Britain should do a Kilkenny cat act.

   • 1984, Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, →ISBN, page 29:

     Even pirate crews and bands of robbers prefer a peaceful settled understanding as to the division of their plunder to the Kilkenny cat plan.

   • 2015, Emma Crewe, The House of Commons: An Anthropology of MPs at Work‎, page 68:

     In the words of a member of the Press Gallery in 1967: 'Here we have 630 men and women, friendly – except for normal human antipathies – in private, and fighting like Kilkenny cats in public.'

See also

• mutual assured destruction