herd cats

English

Etymology

Possibly from the opening scene of Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). Shepherds are discussing sheep and the topic strays to cats: "Can you imagine a herds of cats waiting to be sheared? Meow! Meow! Woo hoo hoo."

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Verb

herd cats (third-person singular simple present herds cats, present participle herding cats, simple past and past participle herded cats)

1. (idiomatic, in similes) To attempt to control the uncontrollable.

   Managing volunteers from fourteen different organizations is like herding cats.

Translations

to attempt to control the uncontrollable

• German: (einen Sack voll) Flöhe hüten
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• cartshed, destarch, starched