See quotations: the second agrees with the English meaning of the same phrase, as given in the ‘Slang Dictionary.’ For a third meaning see GROSE.
1816. This whipping the cat is nothing more than a parcel of trades puffing at one another’s heels, of a morning, to borrow money.—J. K. Paulding, ‘Letters from the South,’ ii. 172 (N.Y., 1817).
1851. [He] made shoes, a trade he prosecuted in an itinerating manner from house to house, “whipping the cat,” as it was termed, and drank excessively.—S. Judd, ‘Margaret,’ i. 19.
