cat

See also: .cat, CAT, Cat, cât, and cãt

English

A domestic cat

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /kæt/, [kʰæt], [kʰæt̚]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US-Inland North)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt
• Homophone: Kat

Etymology 1

From Middle English cat, catte, from Old English catt (“male cat”), catte (“female cat”), from Proto-Germanic *kattuz.

The Germanic word is generally thought to be from Late Latin cattus (“domestic cat”), from Latin catta (used around 75 AD by Martial), from an Afro-Asiatic language. This would roughly match how domestic cats themselves spread, as genetic studies suggest they began to spread out of the Near East / Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic (being in Cyprus by 9500 years ago, and Greece and Italy by 2500 years ago), especially after they became popular in Egypt. However, every proposed source word has presented problems. Many references refer to "Berber" (Kabyle) kaddîska (“wildcat”) and "Nubian [script needed] (kadīs)" as possible sources or cognates, but M. Lionel Bender says the Nubian term is a loan from Arabic قِطَّة‎ (qiṭṭa). Jean-Paul Savignac suggests the Latin word is from an Egyptian precursor of Coptic ϣⲁⲩ (šau, “tomcat”) suffixed with feminine -t, but John Huehnergard says "the source [...] was clearly not Egyptian itself, where no analogous form is attested."

Huehnergard opines it is "equally likely that the forms might derive from an ancient Germanic word, imported into Latin and thence to Greek and to Syriac and Arabic". Guus Kroonen also considers the word to be native to Germanic (due to morphological alternations) and Northern Europe, and suggests that it might ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, compare Northern Sami gađfe (“female stoat”) and Hungarian hölgy (“stoat; lady, bride”) from Proto-Uralic *käďwä (“female (of a fur animal)”).

Related to Scots cat, West Frisian kat, North Frisian kåt and kaat, Dutch kat, Danish kat, Norwegian katt, Swedish katt, German Low German Katt and Katte, German Katze, Alemannic German Chatz, Icelandic köttur, Afrikaans kat, French chat, Norman cat, Occitan cat, Aromanian cãtush, Scottish Gaelic cat, Irish cat, Welsh cath, Cornish kath, as well as Ancient Greek κάττα (kátta), Greek γάτα (gáta), and from the same ultimate source Russian кот (kot), Belarusian кот (kot), Polish kot, Kashubian kòt, Lithuanian katė, and more distantly Armenian կատու (katu), Basque katu, Hebrew חתול‎ (khatúl), Arabic قِطَّة‎ (qiṭṭa) .

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. An animal of the family Felidae:
   • 2011, Karl Kruszelnicki, Brain Food, →ISBN, 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.

   Synonym: felid

   1. A domesticated subspecies (Felis silvestris catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet. [from 8^thc.]
      • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, OCLC 16832619:

        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.

      Synonyms: puss, pussy, malkin, kitty, pussy-cat, grimalkin

   2. Any similar animal of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, bobcats, etc.
      • 1977, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush, St. Martin's Press, 44.

        I grabbed it and ran over to the lion from behind, the cat still chewing thoughtfully on Silent's arm.

      • 1985 January, George Laycock, "Our American Lion", in Boy Scouts of America, Boy's Life, 28.

        If you should someday round a corner on the hiking trail and come face to face with a mountain lion, you would probably never forget the mighty cat.

      • 2014, Dale Mayer, Rare Find. A Psychic Visions Novel, Valley Publishing.

        She felt privileged to be here, living the experience inside the majestic cat [i.e. a tiger]; privileged to be part of their bond, even for only a few hours.

2. A person.
   1. (offensive) A spiteful or angry woman. [from earlier 13^thc.]
      • 1835 September, anonymous, "The Pigs", in The New-England Magazine, Vol. 9, 156.

        But, ere one rapid moon its tale has told, / He finds his prize — a cat — a slut — a scold.

      Synonym: bitch

   2. An enthusiast or player of jazz.
      • 2008, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (lyrics and music), “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).
      • 1973 December, "Books Noted", discussing A Dialogue (by James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni), in Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, 77.

        BALDWIN: That's what we were talking about before. And by the way, you did not have to tell me that you think your father is a groovy cat; I knew that.

      • 1998, “Fiend”, in Respect, performed by Shaquille O'Neal:

        What fags are true I know what Mack's might do
        I'm quite familiar with cats like you
        Provoke to get me give me a good reason to smoke me
        Try to break me but never wrote me)

      • 2006, Masta Ace (lyrics), “Sick of it all”, in Pariah:

        I am sick of rappers claiming they hot when they really not
        I am sick of rappers bragging about shit they ain’t really got
        These cats stay rapping about cars they don’t own
        I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don’t bone.[…]
        And I am sick of all these cats with no talent
        That never lived in the hood but yet their lyrics be so violent.

      Synonyms: bloke, chap, cove, dude, fellow, fella, guy

   4. (slang) A prostitute. [from at least early 15^thc.]
      • 1999, Carl P. Eby, Hemingway's Fetishism. Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood, State University of New York Press, 124.

        “Tell me. Willie said there was a cat in love with you. That isn't true, is it?” “Yes. It's true,” Hudson corrects her, letting her think that by “cat” he means prostitute.

3. (nautical) A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.
   • 2009, Olof A. Eriksen, Constitution - All Sails Up and Flying, Outskirts Press, 134.

     Overhaul down & hook the cat, haul taut. Walk away the cat. When up, pass the cat head stopper. Hook the fish in & fish the anchor.

4. (chiefly nautical) Short form of cat-o'-nine-tails.
   • 1839, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, testimony by Henry L. Pinckney (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.

5. (archaic) A sturdy merchant sailing vessel (now only in "catboat").
6. (archaic, uncountable) The game of "trap and ball" (also called "cat and dog").
   1. The trap of the game of "trap and ball".
7. (slang, vulgar, African American Vernacular) 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.

8. 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

See also Thesaurus:cat, Thesaurus:man.

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}} to add them to the appropriate sense(s).

• (any member of the suborder (sometimes superfamily) Feliformia or Feloidea): feliform ("cat-like" carnivoran), feloid (compare Caniformia, Canoidea)
• (any member of the subfamily Felinae, genera Puma, Acinonyx, Lynx, Leopardus, and Felis)): feline cat, a feline
• (any member of the subfamily Pantherinae, genera Panthera, Uncia and Neofelis): pantherine cat, a pantherine
• (technically, all members of the genus Panthera): panther (i.e. tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard), (narrow sense) panther (i.e. black panther)
• (any member of the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae, genera Smilodon, Homotherium, Miomachairodus, etc.): Smilodontini, Machairodontini (Homotherini), Metailurini, "saber-toothed cat" (saber-tooth)

Hyponyms

• (domestic species): housecat, malkin, kitten, mouser, tomcat

Derived terms

Terms derived from cat in the above senses

• a cat may look at a king
• African golden cat
• all cats are grey in the dark, all cats are grey by night
• alley cat
• Andean cat
• Asiatic golden cat
• barn cat
• bay cat
• black-footed cat
• bobcat
• Burmese cat, Burmese
• cat and mouse
• catbird
• cat-block
• cat box
• cat-burglar
• catcall
• caterwaul
• cat-eyed
• catfish
• cat-flap
• cat food
• cat-footed
• cat got someone's tongue, cat got your tongue?
• catgut
• cat-harpin
• cathead, cat-head
• cat-house
• cat-ice
• cat in the meal-tub
• cat in the sack
• catkin
• catlap
• cat-lick
• catlike
• catling
• cat litter
• catloaf

• catly
• catmint
• cat-nap, cat nap, catnap
• catnip
• cat-o'-nine-tails
• cat's cradle
• cat scratch fever
• cat's eye
• catshit
• cat's meat
• cat's meow
• cat's pajamas, the cat's pyjamas
• cat's paw
• cat's-tail
• cat state
• catsuit
• cat's whisker
• cat's whiskers
• cat that ate the canary, cat that swallowed the canary
• cattish
• cat-trap
• catty
• Caturday
• cat wagon
• catwalk, cat-walk
• cat-witted
• Chinese desert cat
• cool cat
• copycat
• curiosity killed the cat
• domestic cat
• fat cat
• feral cat
• fight like cats and dogs
• fishing cat
• flat-headed cat
• Geoffroy's cat
• hepcat

• housecat
• it would make a cat laugh
• jungle cat
• kick at the cat
• lead a cat-and-dog life
• leopard cat
• let the cat out of the bag
• like a cat in a strange garret
• like a cat on a hot tin roof
• like a cat on hot bricks
• like herding cats
• like the cat that got the cream
• little spotted cat
• lolcat
• Maine Coon cat, Maine Coon
• Manx cat, Manx
• marbled cat
• native cat
• not enough room to swing a cat
• Pallas cat
• pampas cat
• Persian cat, Persian
• rain cats and dogs
• reduced cat
• Russian Blue cat, Russian Blue
• rusty-spotted cat
• sand cat
• scaredy-cat
• Schrödinger's cat
• Siamese cat, Siamese
• spokescat
• tabby cat, tabby
• there's more than one way to skin a cat, there is more than one way to skin a cat
• tom cat, tomcat
• wait for the cat to jump
• when the cat's away the mice will play
• wildcat, wild cat

Translations

See cat/translations § Noun.

Verb

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

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

Translations

raise anchor to cathead

• Danish: katte
• French: caponner (fr)

• Italian: caponare
• Norwegian: katte (no)

flog

• French: fouetter avec un chat à neuf queues

vomit

• Afrikaans: opgooi, kots
• Danish: brække sig (da)
• Estonian: oksendama
• Finnish: (slang) yrjötä (fi)

• French: dégobiller (fr), débecter (fr), débequeter (fr)
• Polish: wymiotować (pl)
• Portuguese: vomitar (pt)

See also

• Burmese
• feline
• kitten, kitty
• Manx
• Maine Coon
• meow
• mog, moggie, moggy
• miaow
• nine lives
• Persian
• Russian Blue
• Schrödinger’s cat
• Siamese
• tabby

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of catamaran.

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. A catamaran.

Etymology 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 the standard output.

Verb

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

1. (computing, transitive) 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.

Etymology 4

Possibly a shortened form of catastrophic.

Adjective

cat (not comparable)

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.

Etymology 5

Shortened from methcathinone.

Noun

cat (uncountable)

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

Etymology 6

Shortened from catapult.

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. (military, naval) A catapult.

   a carrier's bow cats

Etymology 7

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. Abbreviation of category.

Etymology 8

Abbreviation of catfish.

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. A catfish.
   • 1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!:

     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.

   • 1916, M. Shults, "Fishing for Yellow Cat in the Brazos", in Field and Stream, vol. 21, 478.

     Fishing for cat is probably, up to a certain stage, the least exciting of all similar sports.

Etymology 9

Abbreviation of caterpillar.

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. (slang) Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)
2. A caterpillar drive vehicle (a ground vehicle which uses caterpillar tracks), especially tractors, trucks, minibuses, and snow groomers.

Anagrams

• A. C. T., A.C.T., ACT, ATC, Act., TAC, TCA, act, act., tac

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Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay cat, from Min Nan 漆 (chhat), from Middle Chinese 漆 (tsit).

Noun

cat

1. paint (substance)

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Irish

Cat

Alternative forms

• cut (Cois Fharraige)

Etymology

From Old Irish catt, from Latin cattus.

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Aran) IPA^(key): /kɑt̪ˠ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /kat̪ˠ/
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /kʊt̪ˠ/ (as if spelled cut)

Noun

cat m (genitive singular cait, nominative plural cait)

1. cat (domestic feline; member of the Felidae)

Declension

Declension of cat

First declension

Bare forms: Case Singular Plural Nominative cat cait Vocative a chait a chata Genitive cait cat Dative cat cait

Forms with the definite article: Case Singular Plural Nominative an cat na cait Genitive an chait na gcat Dative leis an gcat don chat leis na cait

Derived terms

Derived terms

• caitín (“catkin”)
• catach (“curly-haired”, adjective)
• catachas (“heat (in a cat)”)

• cat crainn (“pine marten”)
• cat Manannach (“Manx cat”)
• cat mara (“catfish”)

• catsúil (“ogle”)
• catúil (“feline”, adjective)

• fearchat (“tomcat”)
• liopardchat (“leopard-cat”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cat	chat	gcat
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• "cat" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• “cat” in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 1st ed., 1904, by Patrick S. Dinneen, page 121.
• “catt” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.
• Entries containing “cat” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “cat” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

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Malay

cat

Alternative forms

• چت‎

Etymology

From Min Nan 漆 (chhat), from Middle Chinese 漆 (tsit).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃat/
• Rhymes: -t͡ʃat, -at

Noun

cat (Jawi spelling چت)

1. paint (substance)

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• catte

Etymology

From Old English catt, catte; this is in turn from Proto-Germanic *kattuz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kat/

Noun

cat (plural cats)

1. cat (feline)

Descendants

• English: cat
• Scots: cat

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Norman

Etymology

From Old Northern French cat (variant of Old French chat) from Late Latin cattus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka/

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Noun

cat m (plural cats, feminine catte)

1. cat
   • c. 1830, George Métivier, ‘Lamentations de Damaris’:

     Où'est donc qu'j'iron, mé et mes puches / Ma catte, et l'reste de l'écu?

   • 2006, Peggy Collenette, ‘D'la gâche de Guernési’, P'tites Lures Guernésiaises, Cromwell Press 2006, page 20:

     Ils d'visirent pour enne haeure, mais la Louise était pas chagrinaïe au tour sa pâte, pasqué a savait que le cat était à gardaïr la pâte caoude. (They talked for an hour, but Louise was not worried about her dough, because she knew that the cat was keeping the dough warm.)

2. (Jersey) common dab (Limanda limanda)

Derived terms

• catchiéthe (“cat-flap”)

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Old French

Noun

cat m (oblique plural caz or catz, nominative singular caz or catz, nominative plural cat)

1. (Picardy, Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of chat

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Turkish kat.

Noun

cat n (plural caturi)

1. floor (storey)

Declension

declension of cat

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) cat	catul	(niște) caturi	caturile
genitive/dative	(unui) cat	catului	(unor) caturi	caturilor
vocative	catule		caturilor

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Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish catt, from Latin cattus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʰaʰt̪/

Noun

cat m (genitive singular cait, plural cait)

1. cat (animal)

Declension

Indefinite Declension of cat

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cat	cait
Vocative	a chait	a chata
Genitive	cait	chat
Dative	cat	cait

Definite Declension of an cat

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	an cat	na cait
Genitive	a’ chait	nan cat
Dative	a’ chat	na cait

Derived terms

• clòimh-chat

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
cat	chat
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.