cat

Alternative forms

• catte (obsolete)

Noun

cat (countable and uncountable, plural cats)

1. An animal of the family Felidae:

   Synonyms: felid, feline, (member of the subfamily Pantherinae) pantherine, (technically, all members of the genus Panthera) panther

   • 2011, Karl Kruszelnicki, Brain Food, →ISBN, page 53:

     Mammals need two genes to make the taste receptor for sugar. Studies in various cats (tigers, cheetahs and domestic cats) showed that one of these genes has mutated and no longer works.

   2. A domesticated species (Felis catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet. [from 8^thc.]

      Synonyms: puss, pussy, kitty, pussy-cat, kitty-cat, grimalkin; see also Thesaurus:cat

      Hypernyms: housecat, malkin, kitten, mouser, tomcat

      • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

        At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.

   3. Any similar animal of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, bobcats, leopards, cougars, cheetahs, caracals, lynxes, and other such non-domesticated species.
      • 1977, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush, St. Martin's Press, page 44:

        I grabbed it and ran over to the lion from behind, the cat still chewing thoughtfully on Silent's arm.

      • 1985 January, George Laycock, “Our American Lion”, in Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, section 28:

        If you should someday round a corner on the hiking trail and come face to face with a mountain lion, you would probably never forget the mighty cat.

      • 2014, Dale Mayer, Rare Find. A Psychic Visions Novel, Valley Publishing:

        She felt privileged to be here, living the experience inside the majestic cat [i.e. a tiger]; privileged to be part of their bond, even for only a few hours.

2. (uncountable) The meat of this animal, eaten as food.

   Synonyms: catflesh, cat meat, gutter rabbit (euphemistic), roof rabbit (euphemistic)

   • 1948, Harry Stephen Keeler, The Case of the Jeweled Ragpicker (The Screwball Circus Mysteries; 3), Wildside Press, published 2017, →ISBN:

     “[…]—Say, do you mind telling me if people around here really eat cats?” He felt a shiver in the pit of his stomach. “Do they eat cat?” said the little old man, profoundly shocked.

   • 2013, Peter Hessler, Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West, Harper Perennial, →ISBN:

     You do not eat cat simply for the thrill of eating cat. You eat cat because cats have a lively jingshen, or spirit, and thus by eating the animal you will improve your spirits.

   • 2013, James Bartleman, The Redemption of Oscar Wolf, Dundurn, →ISBN:

     I ate at a Chinese restaurant once, even though my friends told me I would probably be eating cat and dog disguised as chicken.

3. A person:
   1. (offensive) A spiteful or angry woman. [from early 13^thc.]

      Synonym: bitch

      • 1835 September, anonymous author, “The Pigs”, in The New-England Magazine, Vol. 9, 156:

        But, ere one rapid moon its tale has told, / He finds his prize — a cat — a slut — a scold.

   2. An enthusiast or player of jazz.

      jazz cat

      • 2008, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (lyrics and music), “Hold on to Yourself”:

        I turn on the radio / There's some cat on the saxophone / Laying down a litany of excuses

   3. (slang) A person (usually male).

      Synonyms: bloke, chap, cove, dude, fellow, fella, guy; see also Thesaurus:man

      • 1958, “Fever”, Eddie Cooley, Otis Blackwell, Peggy Lee (lyrics), performed by Peggy Lee:

        Now you've listened to my story / Here's the point that I have made / Cats were born to give chicks fever / Be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade

      • 1972, “Starman”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie:

        Didn't know what time it was the lights were low / I leaned back on my radio / Some cat was layin' down some rock'n'roll 'lotta soul, he said

      • 1973 December, "Books Noted", discussing A Dialogue (by James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni), in Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, 77.

        BALDWIN: That's what we were talking about before. And by the way, you did not have to tell me that you think your father is a groovy cat; I knew that.

      • 1998, “Fiend”, in Respect, performed by Shaquille O'Neal:

        What fags are true I know what Mack's might do
        I'm quite familiar with cats like you
        Provoke to get me give me a good reason to smoke me
        Try to break me but never wrote me)

      • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 208:

        I started showing up early for every team practice, and when all those other cats jetted to hit the showers, I put in even more work on the court, eliminating my weaknesses, practicing drills and perfecting my outside shot.

      • 2006, “Sick of it all”, in Masta Ace (lyrics), Pariah:

        I am sick of rappers claiming they hot when they really not
        I am sick of rappers bragging about shit they ain’t really got
        These cats stay rapping about cars they don’t own
        I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don’t bone.[…]
        And I am sick of all these cats with no talent
        That never lived in the hood but yet their lyrics be so violent.

   4. (slang) A prostitute. [from at least early 15^thc.]
      • 1999, Carl P. Eby, Hemingway's Fetishism. Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood, State University of New York Press, page 124:

        "Tell me. Willie said there was a cat in love with you. That isn't true, is it?" "Yes. It's true," Hudson corrects her, letting her think that by "cat" he means prostitute.

4. (nautical) A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.
   • 2009, Olof A. Eriksen, Constitution - All Sails Up and Flying, Outskirts Press, page 134:

     Overhaul down & hook the cat, haul taut. Walk away the cat. When up, pass the cat head stopper. Hook the fish in & fish the anchor.

5. (chiefly nautical) Short for cat-o'-nine-tails.
   • 1839, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, testimony by Henry L. Pinckney (Assembly No. 335), page 44:

     […] he whipped a black man for disobedience of his orders fifty lashes; and again whipped him with a cat, which he wound with wire, about the same number of stripes; […] he used this cat on one other man, and then destroyed the cat wound with wire.

6. (archaic) A sturdy merchant sailing vessel (now only in "catboat").
7. (archaic, uncountable) The game of trap ball.
   1. (archaic, countable) The trap in that game.
8. (archaic) The pointed piece of wood that is struck in the game of tipcat.
9. (slang, vulgar, African-American Vernacular) A vagina or vulva.
   • 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Holloway House Publishing:

     "What the hell, so this broad's got a prematurely-gray cat."

   • 2005, Carolyn Chambers Sanders, Sins & Secrets, Hachette Digital:

     As she came up, she tried to put her cat in his face for some licking.

   • 2007, Franklin White, Money for Good, Simon and Schuster, page 64:

     I had a notion to walk over to her, rip her apron off, sling her housecoat open and put my finger inside her cat to see if she was wet or freshly fucked because the dream I had earlier was beginning to really annoy me.

10. A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.) with six feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever position it is placed.
12. (historical) A wheeled shelter, used in the Middle Ages as a siege weapon to allow assailants to approach enemy defences.

    Synonyms: tortoise, Welsh cat

    • 2000, Stephen O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy, Profile Books, page 97:

      From behind the narrow slits in the walls of Castellar, crossbowmen and archers took aim at the juddering cat as it came closer.

Verb

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

1. (nautical, transitive) To hoist (an anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.

   Synonym: cathead

   • 1922, Francis Lynde, Pirates’ Hope, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 226:

     The anchors were catted at the bows of the yacht […]

2. (nautical, transitive) To flog with a cat-o'-nine-tails.
3. (slang) To vomit.
4. To go wandering at night.
   • 1998, Mary Spencer, Lady’s Wager, page 324:

     "He doesn't realize that I know," Lord Callan said, "but it's been pretty obvious that most of his catting about London's darker alleys has been a search for his origins.

   • 2010, Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, page 18:

     This was going to be my first try at catting out. I went looking for somebody to cat with me.

   • 2012, Valerie Hansen, Wages of Sin:

     My own dear wife could have tended to his needs if she hadn't been out catting.

5. To gossip in a catty manner.
   • 1932, Hugh Brooke, Man Made Angry, page 134:

     Men from young to middleaged, with matt faces, vivacious and brightly dressed, catted together in gay groups.

   • 1996, Alistair Boyle, The Unlucky Seven:

     They smiled, touched, rolled their eyes and raised their eyebrows, as they relived the audition and catted about some of their competition.

   • 2016, Melanie Benjamin, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, page 293:

     In the story, Lady Ina gossiped and catted about a parade of the rich and famous—Jackie Kennedy looking like an exaggerated version of herself, Princess Margaret so boring she made people fall asleep, Gloria Vanderbilt so ditzy she didn't recognize her first husband.

See also

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. (computing) A program and command in Unix that reads one or more files and directs their content to the standard output.

Verb

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

1. (computing, transitive) To apply the cat command to (one or more files).
2. (computing, slang) To dump large amounts of data on (an unprepared target), usually with no intention of browsing it carefully.

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. (slang) A street name of the drug methcathinone.
2. Abbreviation of catapult.

   a carrier's bow cats

3. Abbreviation of catalytic converter.
4. Abbreviation of catamaran.
5. Abbreviation of category.
6. Abbreviation of catfish.
   • 1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!:

     She missed the fish diet of her own country, and twice every summer she sent the boys to the river, twenty miles to the southward, to fish for channel cat.

   • 1916, M. Shults, “Fishing for Yellow Cat in the Brazos”, in Field and Stream, vol. 21, 478:

     Fishing for cat is probably, up to a certain stage, the least exciting of all similar sports.

7. Abbreviation of caterpillar.
   1. (slang) Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)
   2. A ground vehicle which uses caterpillar tracks, especially tractors, trucks, minibuses, and snow groomers.
8. Abbreviation of computed axial tomography. Often used attributively, as in “CAT scan” or “CT scan”.

Adjective

cat (not comparable)

2. (Ireland, colloquial) Catastrophic; terrible, disastrous.

   The weather was cat, so they returned home early.

Derived terms

Declension

Derived terms

Affixed terms

• bercat
• mengecat (active voice): to paint
  • dicat (passive voice): to be painted
• catan: painting (an artwork in the form of a painted picture)
• pengecatan: the action of applying paint to something (e.g. a surface, etc.)
• pengecat: painter (a person whose job is paining buildings)

Synonyms

• badde

Descendants

• English: cat
• Scots: cat
• Yola: kaudès, kauddès, kaudes (plural)

References

• “cat, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Derived terms

• catchiéthe (“cat-flap”)

Declension

Declension

Derived terms