subs. phr. (American).—See quots.
1839. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Old Judge, I. 44. That critter is like a SINGED CAT, better nor he seems.
1858. New Orleans Bulletin, May. Parson Brownlow has found an antagonist in the Rev. Mr. Pryne, of Cincinnati…. We reckon there’ll be fun, as a Cincinnati paper says Pryne is a perfect SINGED CAT!
1859. BARTLETT, Dictionary of Americanisms, s.v. SINGED-CAT. An epithet applied to a person whose appearance does him injustice.
1876. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, i. 20. You’re a kind of a SINGED CAT, as the saying is.
