• Cat

    Pronunciation

    Origin 1

    From Middle English cat, catte, from Old English catt ("male cat") and catte ("female cat"), from Late Latin cattus ("domestic cat"), from Latin catta (used around 75 BC by Martial)

    Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, s.v. "cat", html, retrieved on 29 September 2009: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cat.

    , from (compare Nubian kadís, kaddîska 'wildcat'), from Late Egyptian čaute,

    Jean-Paul Savignac, Dictionnaire français-gaulois, s.v. "chat" (Paris: Errance, 2004), 82.

    feminine of čaus 'jungle cat, African wildcat', from earlier Egyptian tešau 'female cat'. Cognate with Scots cat ("cat"), Welsh cath ("cat"), West Frisian kat ("cat"), North Frisian kåt ("cat"), Dutch kat ("cat"), Low German Katt, Katte ("cat"), German Katze ("cat"), Danish kat ("cat"), Swedish katt ("cat"), Icelandic köttur ("cat"), Armenian կատու (katu, "cat"), Occitan cat.

    Full definition of cat

    Noun

    cat

    (plural cats)
    1. An animal of the family Felidae:
      • 2011, Karl Kruszelnicki, Brain Food (ISBN 1466828129), 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.
      1. A domesticated subspecies (Felis silvestris catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet. from 8th c.
        • 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate Chapter 2, 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.
      2. Any similar animal of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, bobcats, etc.
      3. A catfish.
        • 1913, Willa Cather, , :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.
      4. A person.
        1. (offensive) A spiteful or angry woman. from earlier 13th c.
        2. An enthusiast or player of jazz.
          • 2008, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "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).
        4. (slang) A prostitute. from at least early 15th c.
        5. (nautical) A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.
        6. (chiefly nautical) Short form of cat-o'-nine-tails.
          • 1839, testimony by Henry L. Pinckney, recorded in the Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York (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.
        7. (slang) Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)
        8. (archaic) A sturdy merchant sailing vessel now only in "catboat".
        9. (archaic, uncountable) The game of "trap and ball" (also called "cat and dog").
          1. The trap of the game of "trap and ball".
        10. (slang, vulgar, African American Vernacular English) A vagina, a vulva; the female external genitalia.
          • 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.
        11. A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.) with six feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever position it is placed.

    Synonyms

    Hyponyms

    Derived terms

    Move
    Terms derived from cat in the above sensesderived * cat-trapinflection * it would make a cat laughphrases * scaredy-cat

    Verb

    1. (nautical) To hoist (the anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.
    2. (nautical) To flog with a cat-o'-nine-tails.
    3. (slang) To vomit something.

    Origin 2

    Abbreviation of catamaran.

    Noun

    cat

    (plural cats)
    1. A catamaran.

    Origin 3

    Abbreviation of catenate.

    Noun

    cat

    (plural cats)
    1. (computing) A program and command in Unix that reads one or more files and directs their content to an output device.

    Verb

    1. (transitive, computing) 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.

    Origin 4

    Possibly a shortened form of catastrophic.

    Adjective

    cat

    1. (Ireland, informal) terrible, disastrous.The weather was cat, so they returned home early.

    Usage notes

    This usage is common in speech but rarely appears in writing.

    Origin 5

    Shortened from methcathinone.

    Noun

    cat

    (uncountable)
    1. A street name of the drug methcathinone.

    Origin 6

    Shortened from catapult.

    Noun

    cat

    (plural cats)
    1. (military, naval) A catapult.a carrier's bow cats

    Anagrams

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