Cat sb.¹

Forms: 1 catte, catt, 2–7 catt, 4–6 catte, (3–7 kat, 6 katte), 1– cat. [The ME. and mod. cat corresponds at once to OE. cat and ONF. cat. The name is common European of unknown origin: found in Lat. and Gr. in 1–4th c., and in the modern langs. generally, as far back as their records go. Byzantine Gr. had κάττα (in Casarius c. 350) and later κάττος, as familiar terms = αἴλουρος; mod.Gr. has γάτα from Ital. Latin had catta in Martial a. 100, and in the Old Latin Bible version (‘Itala’), where it renders αἴλουρος. Palladius, a. 350[?], has catus, elsewhere scanned cātus (Lewis and Short), and prob. in both cases properly cattus. From cattus, catta, came all the Romanic forms, It. gatto, Sp., Pg. gato, Cat. gat, Pr. cat, ONF. cat, F. chat, with corresponding feminines gatta, gata, cata, cate, chate, chatte. The Teutonic forms recorded are OE. cat, catt, ON. kött-r (:—kattuz) masc., genit. kattar (Sw. katt, Da. kat); also OE. catte ? fem., WGer. *katta (MLG. katte, MDu. katte, kat, Du. kat, also Sw. katta), OHG. chazzâ (MHG., mod.G. katze) fem.; OHG. had also chataro, MHG. katero, kater, mod.G. and Du. kater, he-cat. The OTeut. types of these would be *kattuz masc., *kattôn- fem., *kat(a)zon- masc.; but as no form of the word is preserved in Gothic, it is not certain that it goes back to the OTeut. period. It was at least WGer. c. 400–450. It is also in Celtic: OIr. cat masc., Gael. cat com., Welsh and Cornish cath f., Breton kaz, Vannes kac’h m. Also in Slavonic, with type kot-: OSlav. kot’ka f., Bulg. kotka, Slovenish kot m., Russ. kot m., kotchka, koshka f., Pol. kot (koczur m.), Boh. kot m., koṭka f., Sorabian koṭka; also Lith. kate; Finnish katti.

  (These forms indicate extensive communication of the word, but do not fix the original source. History points to Egypt as the earliest home of the domestic cat, and the name is generally sought in the same quarter; Martial’s attribute might incline us to a Slavonic or Teutonic origin:

c. 75.  Martial xiii. 69. Pannonicas nobis nunquam dedit Umbria cattas.

a. 250.  Baruch vi. 21. (‘Itala’) Noctuæ et hirundines et aves, similiter et cattæ [LXX. καὶ οἱ αἴλουροι].

  I.  The animal.

  1.  A well-known carnivorous quadruped (Felis domesticus) that has long been domesticated, being kept to destroy mice, and as a house pet.

a. 800.  Corpus Gloss., 863. Fellus (felis), catte.

a. 1000.  Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 120. Muriceps, uel musio, murilegus, catt.

c. 1050.  Gloss., ibid. 445. Muriceps, cat.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 416. Ne schulen habben no best, bute kat one.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 5275. By nighth als a cat hy seeth.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 348. Who so wolde senge the cattes skin, Than wol the cat wel dwellen in hire in.

c. 1520.  Andrewe, Noble Lyfe, in Babees Bk. (1868), 224. The mouse hounter or catte is an onclene beste, & a poyson ennemy to all myse.

1556.  Chron. Grey Fr. (1852), 88. Item … was a katte hongyd on the gallos in Cheppe clothed lyke a preste.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., V. i. 315. The Cat will mew, and Dogge will haue his day.

1699.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Mouse, He watcht me as a Cat does a Mouse.

1752.  Johnson, Rambl., No. 188, ¶ 12. Purring like a cat.

1832.  A. Fonblanque, Engl. under 7 Admin. (1837), II. 272. The ruffians who threw dead dogs and dead cats at the Duke.

  b.  The male or he-cat (formerly also boar-cat, ram-cat) is now colloquially called Tom-cat (see TOM); formerly and still in north Engl. and Sc. Gib-cat (see GIB); the female or she-cat was formerly also doe-cat.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 6207. Gibbe our cat That awaiteth mice and rattes to killen.

a. 1529.  Skelton, P. Sparowe, 22. To call Phylyp agayne, Whom Gyb our cat hath slayne.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. ii. 83. I am as Melancholy as a Gyb-Cat.

1607–1797.  [See BOAR-CAT].

1611.  Cotgr., Chate, a she-cat or doe-cat.

1667.  Pepys, Diary, 29 Nov. Our young gibb-cat did leap down our stairs … at two leaps.

1749.  Coles, Eng. Lat. Dict., A gib-cat, felis mas.

1760.  Life & Adv. of Cat, iv. 11. Tom the Cat is born of poor but honest parents.

1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Gib cat, a northern name for a he cat, there commonly called Gilbert.

1791.  Huddesford, Salmagundi (1793), 141. Cats … of titles obsolete or yet in use, Tom, Tybert, Roger, Rutterkin, or Puss.

1795.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Peter’s Pension. Clapping their dead ram-cats in holy ground.

1839.  [see 13 c.] Tom-cat.

  c.  Wild Cat, Felis Catus, the only representative of the feline genus found native in Great Britain; it is larger and stronger than the domestic cat, and is by some considered a distinct species.

c. 1400.  in Cod. Dipl., IV. 236. For hare, and foxe, and wild cattes.

1577.  Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 23. The church is no wylde cat: it will stande still.

1847.  Carpenter, Zool., § 190. The Wild Cat … is now confined to Scotland, some of the woods in the North of England, the woody mountains of Wales, and some parts of Ireland.

  2.  fig. As a term of contempt for a human being; esp. one who scratches like a cat; a spiteful or backbiting woman.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 102. Hweðer þe cat of helle claurede euer toward hire.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, IV. iii. 295. A pox upon him for me, he’s more and more a Cat. Ibid. (1607), Cor., IV. ii. 34. ’Twas you incenst the rable-Cats.

1763.  Mrs. Brooke, Lady J. Mandeville (1782), II. 72. An old cat … who is a famous proficient in scandal.

1778.  Johnson, in Boswell (1887), III. 246. She was a speaking cat.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, xii. His mother called me an old cat.

  † b.  slang. A prostitute. Obs.

[1401.  Pol. Poems, II. 113. Be ware of Cristis curse, and of cattis tailis.]

1535.  Lyndesay, Satyre, 468. Wantonnes. Hay! as ane brydlit cat, I brank.

1690.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cat, a common Whore.

1708.  Motteux, Rabelais (1737), V. 217. Wrigglers, Misses, Cats, Rigs.

  3.  Zool. Extended (usually in pl.) to the members of the genus Felis, including the lion, tiger, panther, leopard, etc.; the feline animals or cat-kind, cat tribe. It enters into the name of some of these, as the tiger-cat of South America.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 383. Panthers, Pardals, Linxes, or Tygers, had been all of the kinde of Cats.

1796.  Stedman, Surinam, II. xviii. 51. The tyger-cat is a very lively animal, with its eyes emitting flashes like lightning.

1834.  McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 68. Of all the Carnaria the Cats are the most completely and powerfully armed.

1839.  Penny Cycl., XIII. 430/2. Leopards, the name by which the greater spotted cats are known.

  4.  With qualifications (or contextually) applied to some animals of similar appearance, as civet-cat, musk-cat, pole-cat, etc.; and in further extension to other animals, as flying-cat (Cant), an owl (cf. Fr. chat-huant); sea-cat, the Wolf-fish.

1553.  Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 25. In this region are founde many muske cattes.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 79. Ciuet is … the verie vncleanly fluxe of a cat. Ibid. (1605), Lear, III. iv. 109. Thou ow’st … the Cat, no perfume.

1699.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Flutter, An Owl is a Flying-Cat.

1859.  Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (ed. 3), II. 384. The wolf-fish, sea-wolf, sea-cat, Scotland. Ibid., 385. The savage Sea-cat is speedily rendered incapable of doing further harm.

1870.  Every Boy’s Ann. (Rtldg.), 628. The polecat had pounced upon the bait…. Between the two [dogs] the cat was killed.

  b.  Short for CATFISH 1 b.

1796.  Stedman, Surinam, II. xviii. 60. The spotted-cat … this fish is formed not unlike a pike.

1848–60.  Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v. Catfish … is also called by the name of Horned-pout, Bull-head, Mud-pout, Minister, or simply Cat.

  † 5.  Short for CAT-SKIN, cat’s fur. Obs.

1656.  Sheph. Kalendar, xxvii. Cats, Conies, Lambs, and diverse other thicke furres that be good and wholesome.

1677.  Hobbes, Homer, 148. And from him then they took his cap of cat.

  II.  Transferred senses.

  6.  A movable pent-house used in early times by besiegers to protect themselves in approaching fortifications, also called cat-house: cf. BELFRY, SOW. In OF. chat-chastel (Cotgr.), med.L. cattus.

  (Caxton has barbed cat: otherwise little evidence appears of its use in Eng., except by modern historians translating Lat. cattus or Fr. chat.)

1489.  [see BARBED-CAT].

1605.  [see cat-house in 18].

1833.  Southey, Naval Hist. Eng., I. 85. Machines which, under the names of ‘Cats’ and ‘Sows,’ were used in sieges.

1860.  Reade, Cloister & H., xliii. (D.). A strong pent-house, which they called ‘a cat.’

1885.  C. W. Oman, Art of War, 58. If the moat could be filled, and the cat brought close to the foot of the fortifications.

  † b.  A lofty work used in fortifications and sieges; a CAVALIER. Obs.

1628.  Wither, Brit. Rememb., IV. 1304. A warlike Fort; A new rais’d Mount, or some fire-spitting Cat.

1647–8.  Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 524. Cavalier, a Mount raised on purpose to plant cannon on. Some call it a Cat.

1652.  Shirley, Honoria & Mammon, I. ii. Of turnpikes, flankers, cats, and counter-scarps.

  7.  Naut. Applied to different parts of the contrivance by which an anchor is raised out of the water to the deck of the ship, or suspended outside clear of the bow; chiefly = CAT-HEAD, but also used for the cat-purchase and the cat-fall (see 18).

1626.  Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 12. The forecastle,… the Cat, Cats head and Cats holes. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., ii. 11. The Cat is also a short peece of timber aloft right ouer the Hawse.

1670.  Dryden, Tempest, I. i. Haul Catt, haul Catt.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cat, is … a … strong tackle, or complication of pullies, to hook and draw the anchor … up to the cat-head.

1825.  H. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 50. The Cat is hook’d ‘Haultaught!’ their weight they ply By Sticking-out more Cable they supply.

c. 1860.  H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 56. The cat, for lifting the whole weight of the anchor, is rove through the foremost sheave of the cat-head, through the inner sheave of the cat-block.

1864.  S. Ferguson, Forging Anchor, vi. A shapely one he is, and strong, as e’er from cat was cast.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 173. When the cat is hooked and ‘cable enough’ veered and stoppered, the anchor hangs below the cat-head.

1880.  Boy’s Own Bk., 315. Cat, a projecting piece of wood or iron to which sheets or halyards are made fast.

  8.  Short for CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS.

1788.  A. Falconbridge, Slave Tr. Afr., 40. A cat (an instrument of correction, which consists of a handle or stem, made of a rope three inches and a half in circumference, and about eighteen inches in length, at one end of which are fastened nine branches, or tails, composed of log line, with three or more knots upon each branch).

1789.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Subj. for Paint., Wks. 1812, II. 149. This Cat’s a cousin-german to the Knout.

1824.  Order in Council, in Ann. Reg. (1824), 64*/2. Any whip, cat, stick, or other such like instrument.

1846.  A. Fonblanque, Life & Labours, ii. (1874), 210. The Duke’s professional prejudice makes him cling to the cat.

  9.  A double tripod with six legs, formed by three bars joined in the middle and so placed that it always rests on three legs, as a cat is said always to land on its feet.

1806.  Ann. Reg., 960. A new toast-stand, or an improvement on the articles called cats or dogs, upon which things are placed before the fire.

1826.  Scott, in S. Gibson, Remin. (1871), 17. A mahogany thing, which is called a cat, with a number of legs, so that turning which way it will it stands upright.

1847.  Mrs. Sherwood, in Life, vi. 88. There was an ebony cat standing before the fire, supporting a huge plate of toast and butter.

1884.  Pall Mall Gaz., 24 July, 9/1. There are also at least a couple of ‘cats,’ stands for open fireplaces.

  10.  A term used in various games.

  a.  A small piece of wood tapering at each end, used in the game of tip-cat, etc.; it is hit at one end by the cat-stick, and made to spring from the ground, and then driven away by a side stroke.

1598.  Florio, Lippo, a trap or cat, such as children play at.

a. 1627.  Middleton, Wom. Beware Wom., I. ii. Prithee, lay up my cat and cat-stick safe.

a. 1652.  Brome, New Acad., IV. i. Wks. 1873, II. 66. All my storehouse of tops, gigs, balls, cat and catsticks.

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past. (1810), 101 (N.). The cat is about six inches in length and an inch and a half or two inches in diameter, and diminished from the middle to both the ends in the shape of a double cone.

  b.  The game itself; tip-cat.

1626.  in Windsor & Eton Gaz. (1886), 6 March, 4/5. Playing at Catt in the Parke medow.

1653.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Journ. Wales (1870), 27. The lawfull and laudable Games of Trap, Catt, Stool-ball, Racket, &c.

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past. (1810), II. iii. 101.

1885.  J. Brown, Bunyan, 61. He was one Sunday in the midst of a game of cat.

  † c.  The cat-stick. Obs.

1636.  Divine Tragedie lately Acted, 23. Sundry youths playing at Catt on the Lords day, two of them fell out, and the one hitting the other under the eare with his catt, he therewith fell downe for dead.

  d.  The stick in the game of Cat-in-the-hole. (Jamieson.)

1721.  Kelly, Sc. Prov., 325 (Jam.). Tine Cat, tine Game. An Allusion to a Play call’d Cat i’the Hole, and the English Kit, Cat. Spoken when men at Law have lost their principal Evidence.

  e.  In names of games: † Cat and trap, Cat i’ the hole (Sc.). Also CAT-AND-DOG 3.

1598.  Florio, Gatta orba, a kinde of Christmas game called blinde is the cat.

1611.  Cotgr., Martinet … the game called Cat and Trap.

1837–40.  Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 442. What do you say to a game at … odd and even, wild cat and ’coon, or somethin’ or another, jist to pass time?

1825–79.  Jamieson, Dict., Cat in the Hole, a game played by boys.

  11.  ‘A mess of coarse meal, clay, etc., placed in dove-cotes, to allure strangers’ (Halliwell). More fully salt-cat.

1669.  Worlidge, Syst. Agric., ix. § 2 (1681), 177. A Salt-Cat … which makes the Pigeons much affect the place: and such that casually come there, usually remain where they find such good entertainment.

  III.  Phrases.

  12.  To turn the cat in the pan: † a. to reverse the order of things so dexterously as to make them appear the very opposite of what they really are; to turn a thing right about. Obs.

  [Origin unknown: the suggestion that cat was originally CATE does not agree with the history of that word.]

1532.  Use Dice Play (1850), 18. These vile cheaters turned the cat in the pan, giving to divers vile, patching thefts, an honest & goodly title, calling it by the name of a law.

c. 1536–40.  Pilgr. T., 692, in Thynne, Animadv. Ther was a prouerbe I knew wan, callyd ‘turnyng the cate in the pane.’

1543.  Becon, Invect. agst. Swearing, Wks. (1843), 353. God saith, ‘Cry, cease not,’ but they turn cat in the pan, and say, ‘Cease, cry not.’

1572.  Huloet (L.). A subtile turning the catte in the panne or wresting of a false thing to some purpose.

1576.  Newton, trans. Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 208. Turning the Cat in the Pan, full of Leiger-du-maine.

1619.  H. Hutton, Follie’s Anat., 31. I’l, with the proverbe, Turne the cat i’ th’ band.

  b.  To change one’s position, change sides, from motives of interest, etc.

1622.  T. Stoughton, Chr. Sacrif., vii. 91. How do they shrinke? yea, how fouly do they … turne cat in pan, and become themselves persecuters of other?

1675.  Crowne, City Politiques, II. i. (1688), 14. Come, come Sirrah, you are a Villain, have turn’d Cat in Pan, and are a Tory.

a. 1720.  Song, Vicar of Bray. I turned the cat in pan once more, And so became a Whig, sir.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xxxv. ‘O, this precious Basil will turn cat in pan with any man.’

  13.  a. A cat may look at a king: there are certain things that an inferior may do in presence of a superior. b. Care killed the cat: care will kill any one even though he had, like the proverbial cat, nine lives. c. Enough to make a cat speak: said of something very extraordinary (frequently of very good drink). d. To jerk, shoot, whip the cat: to vomit, especially from too much drink. e. To see (watch) which way the cat jumps: i.e., what direction events are taking. f. To fight like Kilkennycats: to engage in a mutually destructive struggle. To bell the cat, To hang the bell about the cat’s neck: see BELL v. and sb. To let the cat out of the bag: to disclose a guarded secret: see BAG. To grin like a Cheshire cat (see N. & Q., 1852, V. 402/2). g. Cat and monkey trick (cf. CAT’S-PAW).

  a.  1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 57. A cat maie looke on a king, ye know.

1590.  Greene, Never too late (1600), 94. A Cat may looke at a King, and a swaines eye hath as high a reach as a Lords looke.

1730–6.  Bailey, s.v., A Cat may look at a King. This is a saucy Proverb, generally made use of by pragmatical Persons.

  b.  1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 162. A woman hath nyne lyues like a cat.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. i. 81. Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine liues. Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, V. i. 133. Though care kil’d a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.

1682.  N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, IV. 332. Exiling fretting Care, that kills a Cat!

1684.  Bunyan, Pilgr., II. (1862), 331. He had, as they say, as many Lives as a Cat.

1886.  Sat. Rev., 6 March, 322/2. That Arab cat-o’-nine-lives, Osman Digna.

  c.  [1600.  Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 86. Here is that which will giue language to you cat.]

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, III. 272. Old Liquor able to make a Cat speak.

1839.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., xii. It’s enough to make a Tom cat speak French grammar, only to see how she tosses her head.

  d.  1609.  Armin, Maids of More-Cl. (1880), 70. Ile baste their bellies and their lippes till we haue ierk’t the cat with our three whippes.

1630.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Brood Cormor., Wks. III. 5/1.

1830.  Marryat, King’s Own, xxxii. I’m cursedly inclined to shoot the cat.

  e.  1827.  Scott, in Croker Pap. (1884), I. xi. 319. Had I time, I believe I would come to London merely to see how the cat jumped.

1863.  Kingsley, Water-Bab., 289. He … understood so well which side his bread was buttered, and which way the cat jumped.

1885.  Pall Mall Gaz., 19 March, 1/2. The Opposition is as much devoted to the cult of the jumping cat as are the Liberals.

  f.  1794.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Wks., II. 411 (D.). Wide as a Cheshire Cat our Court will grin.

1855.  Thackeray, Newcomes, I. xxiv. 236 (D.). Mr. Newcome says … ‘That woman grins like a Cheshire cat.’

  g.  1856.  Olmsted, Slave States, 494. So successfully was this cat-and-monkey trick performed, that multitudes of Carolina Indians were exported, as slaves, to the West Indies, where they were exchanged for rum.

  14.  To draw through the water with a cat, also to whip the cat: to practise a practical joke, thus described by Grose:

  ‘A trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, by laying a wager with them that they may be pulled through a pond by a cat; the bet being made, a rope is fastened round the waist of the person to be catted, and the end thrown across the pond, to which the cat is also fastened by a pack-thread, and three or four sturdy fellows are appointed to lead and whip the cat; these on a signal given, seize the end of the cord, and pretending to whip the cat, haul the astonished booby through the water.’

1614.  B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, I. iv. (1631), 9 (N.). I’ll be drawne with a good Gib-cat, through the great pond at home.

1682.  in Lond. Gaz., No. 1725/3. We hope, sir, that this Nation will be too Wise, to be drawn twice through the same Water by the very same Cat.

1690.  B. E., Dict. Canting Crew, Catting, drawing a Fellow through a Pond with a Cat.

1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., s.v. Cat-whipping.

1847.  Halliwell, s.v. Whip-the-Cat.

1876.  Pall Mall Gaz., 22 Sept., 6/1. ‘Drawing a cat’ across the River Lee [Trial for manslaughter at Central Criminal Court].

1888.  N. & Q., Ser. VII. V. 310.

  15.  In many other proverbs and phrases.

c. 1450.  Henryson, Mor. Fab., 65. It is ane olde Dog … that thou begyles, Thou weines to draw the stra before the Cat.

c. 1530.  Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 66. Wysdome is greate if the cat neuer touched mylke.

a. 1535.  More, Wks. (1557), 241/1 (R.). It was alway that y^e cat winked whan her eye was oute.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 47. The catte wyll fyshe eate, but she wyl not her feete wette.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 10. When all candels be out, all cats be grey.

1577.  Holinshed, Chron., II. 731. The Englishmen in those daies were cats not to be caught without mittens.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 109. If the Cat will after kinde, so be sure will Rosalinde.

1651.  Culpepper, Astrol. Judgem. Dis. (1658), 114. The disease will stay in one state as long as a Cat is tyed to a Pudding.

1665.  Pepys, Diary, 14 Aug. The king shall not be able to whip a cat but I mean to be at the tayle of it.

1708.  Motteux, Rabelais, V. vii. As analogous as Chalk and Cheese, or a Cat and a Cartwheel!

1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl., II. 8 June. At London, I am pent up in frowzy lodgings, where there is not room enough to swing a cat.

1887.  Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Oct., 2/2. They play a cat-and-mouse game with him for some time, making him believe that he is doomed to instant death.

  IV.  Attrib. and Comb.

  16.  attrib. Of or pertaining to cats; cat-like. (Often hyphened, as in next.)

1500–20.  Dunbar, Of Ane Blak-moir, 8. Quhon hir schort catt noiss vp skippis.

1720.  Stow’s Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), I. I. xvi. 84/1. One lion, one lioness, one leopard, and two cat Lions in the said Tower.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 249. Animals of the cat kind.

1839–47.  Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 302/1. In the … cat-tribe, there is a cæcum, though it is simple and short.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. viii. Mouldy little plantation or cat-preserve.

1881.  Mivart, Cat, 366. We cannot of course, without becoming cats, perfectly understand the cat-mind.

  17.  General comb.: a. attributive, as cat-bolt, -land, -scratch, -show, -speech; b. objective, as cat-catcher, -hauling, -killer; c. parasynthetic, as cat-eyed, -faced, -footed; also cat-wise adv.

1593.  G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 8. The dreadfull enginer of phrases, in steede of thunderboltes, shooteth nothing but dogboltes, or *catboltes, and the homeliest boltes of rude folly.

1799.  Southey, Nondescr., v. Rare music! I would rather hear *cat-courtship Under my bed-room window in the night.

1613.  Rowlands, Four Knaves (1843), 42. Night-Raven, and such *Cat-eyed Fowle.

1685.  Dryden, Lucretius, IV. Misc. II. 88 (R.). If Cat-ey’d, then a Pallas is their love.

1816.  ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, VIII. 212. Some *cat-fac’d General.

1598.  E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 52. *Cat-footed for slie pace, and without sound.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, I. 103. I stole … Cat-footed thro’ the town.

1844–7.  Chambers’ Misc. Useful Tracts, cxlix. 17. I saw a slave punished by *cat-hauling. The cat was placed on the bare shoulders, and forcibly dragged by the tail down the back … of the prostrate slave.

1880.  T. B. Aldrich, in Atlantic Monthly, June, 737/1. It is merely a *cat-scratch.

1883.  E. M. Bacon, Dict. Boston (Mass.), 304/1. *Cat-shows, dog-shows.

1789.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Subj. for Paint., Wks. 1812, II. 187. As if with knowledge of *Cat-speech endued.

a. 1845.  Hood, Irish Schoolm., xvi. (1871), 191. Climbeth, *catwise, on some London roof.

  18.  Special comb.: cat-and-clay (Sc.), straw and clay worked together into pretty large rolls and laid between the wooden posts in constructing mud-walls; cat-back, Naut. (see cat-rope); cat-beam (Naut.), the beak-head beam, the broadest beam in a ship (see BEAK-HEAD 3 and CAT-HEAD 1); cat-blash (dial.) = CAT-LAP; cat-block (Naut.), a two- or three-fold block forming part of the cat-tackle; cat-brain (dial.), a soil consisting of rough clay mixed with stones; cat-brier, an American name for Smilax (Treas. Bot.); cat-chop, a plant, Mesembryanthemum felinum; cat-collops (dial.), cat’s-meat; cat-dirt, a kind of clay; cat-face (U.S.), a mark in lumber-wood (see quot.); cat-fall (Naut.), in the cat-tackle, the rope between the cat-block and the sheaves in the cat-head; cat-, cat’s-gold (Ger. katzengold, Sw. kattguld), a yellowish variety of mica (cf. CAT-SILVER); † cat-harrow (Sc.), a nursery game, played by pulling crossing loops of thread, cat-saw; cat-haw (dial.), the fruit of the hawthorn; cat-hook (Naut.), the hook on the cat-block by which it is connected with the anchor when the latter is to be catted; cat-house (see 6 above); cat-ice, cat’s ice, thin ice of a milky white appearance in shallow places, from under which the water has receded; cat-in-clover, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus; cat-keys, cat’s-keys, cats and keys (dial.), the fruit of the ash-tree, culver-keys; cat-ladder, a kind of ladder used on the sloping roofs of houses; † cat-leap (see quot.); also the distance a cat leaps; cat-mallison (see quots.); cat-nap, a short nap while sitting; cat-owl, a North American species of owl; † cat-pipe, a cat-call (see CAT-CALL 1); cat-purchase (Naut.) = cat-tackle; cat-rope (Naut.), † (a.) = cat-fall; (b.) ‘a line for hauling the cat-hook about; also cat-back-rope’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.); cat-salt, ‘a beautifully granulated kind of common salt … formed out of the bittern or leach brine’ (Chambers, Cycl. Supp.); cat-saw = cat-harrow; cat-scaup, -scalp (dial.), an ironstone nodule (see CAT-HEAD 2); cat-sleep = cat-nap; † cat-sloe, the Wild Sloe; cat-squirrel, (a.) the common squirrel (dial.); (b.) the grey American squirrel; cat-steps, ‘the projections of the stones in the slanting part of a gable’ (Jamieson), crow-steps; cat-stopper (Naut.), the cat-head stopper (see CAT-HEAD 1); † cat-succory, the Wild Succory; cat-tackle (Naut.), the tackle to raise the anchor to the cat-head (see CAT-HEAD 1); cat-thyme, a species of Teucrium, which causes sneezing; cat-trail (dial.), the Great Valerian, or its root, used to attract cats; cat-tree, -wood, the Spindle-tree; cat-whin (dial.), a name of various plants as Dog-rose, Burnet-rose, etc.; † cat-wort = CATMINT; † cat-wralling: see CATERWAULING. Also CAT-AND-DOG, CAT-CALL, etc.

1756.  Mrs. Calderwood, Jrnl. (1884), 18. [The cottage] was built of timber stoops, and what we call *cat and clay walls.

1833.  Fraser’s Mag., VIII. 410. The cat-and-clay hovels … had given place to neat … cottages.

1882.  Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 91. *Cat-backs … are led through leading blocks.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 95. *Cat-Beam, or Beak-Head Beam.

1877.  E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., You call this tea maybe, I call it sore *cat-blash.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), F iij. The *Cat-block is employed to draw the anchor up to the cat-head.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxiii. 63. The cat-block being as much as a man could lift.

1679.  Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 345. The *Catbrain (as they call it) i. e. a sort of barren clay and stone mixt.

1879.  Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Cat-brain, a rough clayey kind of soil full of stone.

1875.  Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, iv. 117. A clump of alders, with *cat-briers.

1855.  Whitby Gloss., *Catcollop, cat’s meat, more particularly the inmeats of animals.

1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., E ij. *Catdirt-Clay [is] a kind of Clay that is short in cutting, and mixed with joynts that are whiter than the Clay itself.

1794.  R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 153. Cat-dirt, channel, &c. found in Derbyshire, are all lava.

1879.  Lumberman’s Gaz., 3 Dec. Logs that have *cat faces or burnt places … the cat face or knots.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), L iv. A rope called the *cat-fall … communicates with the cat block.

1849.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxviii. 97. All hands tallied on to the cat-fall.

1882.  Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 175. The cat-fall … is rove through a sheave in the cathead.

1762.  trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., I. 42. *Cats-gold, which is semi-transparent.

1776.  Seiferth, trans. Gellert’s Metal. Chym., 10. Cat-gold.… So the glimmer is called by the Germans, when it has the colour of gold.

1529.  Lyndesay, Complaynt, 308. Thay gan to draw at the *cat harrow.

1721.  Kelly, Sc. Prov., 329 (Jam.). They draw the Cat Harrow. That is, they thwart one another.

1605.  Camden, Rem. (1657), 206. This *cat-house answerable to the cattus mentioned by Vegetius, was used in the siege of Bedford castle in the time of King Henry the third.

1840.  L. Ritchie, Windsor Cast., 215. The gattus or cat house, the belfry and sow … were covered machines, used to protect soldiers in their attacks upon the gates or walls.

1884.  Daily News, 10 Nov., 5/7. The worst that would happen to him would be to break through the *cat ice in shallows.

1695.  Westmacott, Script. Herb., 189. The Sycomore with us … leaves an imperfect Fruit, called Pods, or *Cat-keys.

1883.  Standard, 23 Feb., 3/6. A *cat ladder, twelve feet in length [was] placed on the roof.

1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Chat, Sault du chat, the *cat-leape, a certaine tricke done by Tumblers, and vaulters upon a table set aslope against a wall.

1583.  Will of Isab. Walker, Kendal (Somerset Ho.). One doughe trough with one thinge to putt chease in, alijs *Cattmaddeson.

1781.  J. Hutton, Tour to Caves, Gloss. (E. D. S.), Catmallisons, the cupboards round the chimneys in the north, where they preserve their dried beef and provisions.

1801.  Lancaster Jrnl., 29 Aug., 3/2. He did not work, and would hardly eat; and as for sleep, he had only *cat-naps, as it were.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. iv. 54. Catching cat-naps as I could in the day…, but carefully waking every hour to note thermometers.

1885.  Daily St. Paul Globe, 19 May, 4/6. Cat-naps were caught in the chairs as the [poker] players sat.

1854.  Thoreau, Walden, xv. (1886), 271. An unmistakable *cat-owl … with the most harsh and tremendous voice … responded.

1694.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, clxxvi. (1714), 190. Put them [i.e., Songsters] out of their Road once, and they are Meer *Cat-Pipes and Dunces.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., vi. 28. The *Cat rope is to hale vp the Cat.

1630.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Navy of Landsh., Wks. I. 81/1.

1723.  Brown, in Phil. Trans., XXXII. 354. The Liquor … will crystalize to the Sticks, something like Sugar-candy, but in much larger Shoots; and this they call *Cat-Salt, or Salt-Cats.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 748. Lymington cat-salt.

1728.  Woodward, Fossils (J.). The nodules … found in the rocks near Whitehaven in Cumberland, where they call them *catscaups.

1837.  Miss Sedgwick, Live & Let Live, 63. Roused from her *cat-sleep by the unwonted noise.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xlvii. 721. The fruite … growing upon the blacke thorne, is called *Catte Slose, and Snagges.

1587.  M. Grove, Pelops & Hipp. (1878), 124. Change … For grapes most pure his cat sloes sower frute.

1882.  Sc. Gossip, July, 161. The following is a list of names now or lately in use in the vicinity of Whitby … *‘Catswerril’ squirrel.

1833.  Fraser’s Mag., VIII. 399. He sought refuge on the top of his master’s house, and, sidling up the *cat-steps, disappeared with his prize.

1715.  Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXIX. 231. Blew *Cat-Succory.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xv. 40. The *cat-tackle-fall was strung along.

a. 1450.  Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 27. Calamentum magis, *catwort. Ibid., 125. Nepta, catwort.

  19.  Comb. with cat’s: a. cat’s-carriage (Sc.), the game of king’s-cushion; † cat’s-pellet, † cat’s-play, ? tip-cat or some other game with a cat (see 10 above); cat’s-purr, a thrill felt over the region of the heart in certain heart-diseases; cat’s-tooth (see quot.). Also CAT’S-CRADLE, -EYE, -HAIR, -MEAT, -PAW, etc.

1609.  Manchester Crt. Leet Rec. (1886), I. 248. A game or games vsed in the towne of Manchest^r called giddye guddye or *catts pallett.

1648.  Brit. Bellman, in Harl. Misc., VII. 625 (D.). Who beats the boys from cat’s-pellet and stool-ball?

1668.  R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev. (1708), 179. They had been either at *Cats-play, or Cuffs.

1776.  Woulfe, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 620. *Cat’s tooth, white lead ore, from Ireland.

  b.  esp. in plant-names: cat’s-claw, (a.) Common Kidney-Vetch, Anthyllis vulneraria; (b.) = Cat-in-clover (18); cat’s-ear, (a.) the book-name of the genus Hypochæris; (b.) Mountain Everlasting, Antennaria dioica; † cat’s-grass; cat’s milk, a species of spurge, Sun-spurge, Euphorbia helioscopia; † cat’s-spear, Reed-mace, Typha latifolia. Also CAT’S-EYE, -FOOT, -TAIL, etc.

1756.  P. Browne, Jamaica, 294. *Cat’s claws. This little plant is frequent about Old Harbour.

1848.  C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 310. Hippochæris maculata, Spotted *Cat’s-ear.

c. 1450.  Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 38. Centinodium, swynegrece uel *cattesgres.

1861.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 5–6. Sun Spurge…. Country people call it … *Cat’s milk…. It is a troublesome weed.