catnap

See also: cat-nap and cat nap

English

Etymology 1

cat +‎ nap

Noun

catnap (plural catnaps)

1. A brief, light sleep, usually during the daytime. [from 1820s]
   • 1965, The New Yorker, page 28:

     Besides, I reflected, Joe might easily have become a catnapper, as so many millions of other Americans had become since Sarah Perkins, during the campaign, had made it so widely known that although the incumbent President slept in a bed with the covers over him for three and sometimes four hours a night, she herself never slept at all except for the catnaps.

   • 2010, Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: Toddler, page 117:

     A toddler who is still having two day sleeps will generally have one good sleep and one catnap, and a toddler who is around three years of age and getting close to dropping her day sleep will catnap.

Alternative forms

• cat nap
• cat-nap

Translations

a brief, light sleep

• Bulgarian: дрямка (bg) f (drjamka)
• Faroese: blundur m
• German: Nickerchen (de) n
• Greek: υπνάκος (el) m (ypnákos)
• Italian: pisolino (it) m
• Maori: moe kinikini
• Norwegian: høneblund
• Ottoman Turkish: اویقو (uyku)
• Persian: چاشتخواب
• Portuguese: soneca (pt) f
• Russian: коро́ткий сон m (korótkij son)
• Spanish: siestecita f, sueñecito m
• Swedish: tupplur (sv) c

Verb

catnap (third-person singular simple present catnaps, present participle catnapping, simple past and past participle catnapped)

1. (intransitive) To take a catnap (short sleep or nap). [from 1850s]
   • 2010, Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: Toddler, page 117:

     A toddler who is still having two day sleeps will generally have one good sleep and one catnap, and a toddler who is around three years of age and getting close to dropping her day sleep will catnap.

Translations

to take a short nap

• German: schlummern (de)
• Italian: fare un sonnellino
• Maori: hāmoemoe, moe kinikini

See also

• nap
• shuteye
• snooze

Etymology 2

cat +‎ -nap

Verb

catnap (third-person singular simple present catnaps, present participle catnapping, simple past and past participle catnapped)

1. (transitive) To kidnap a cat.
   • 1990, Kalliope, page 40:

     When you suspect your cat's up a tree because he was chased or now locked up in the parked car because someone conspired to catnap him (he is quite the personality), what economic scales could they employ to set ransom?

   • 2002, Joseph Ashby Porter, “A Man Wanted to Buy a Cat”, in Touch Wood: Short Stories, page 12:

     The man thought, if she refuses, I could catnap it early one Wednesday afternoon while she's dozing. Leave a bogus ransom note?.

   • 2018, Elaine Viets, Catnapped!:

     But the jury was appalled that Amber had stepped over Mort's dead body to steal his cat, and moved by Trish's dignified and heartrending testimony about her suffering when Justine was catnapped.

   • 2019 October 30, Next Level Games, Luigi's Mansion 3, v1.4.0, Nintendo, level/area: Main Observation Room (15F: Master Suite):

     Hellen Gravely: 'You ransacked my hotel, captured my staff with that strange vacuum of yours... And to top it all off, you catnapped my sweetie, my little darling... My precious Polterkitty!'

Derived terms

• catnapper

Anagrams

• captan