Idioms related to cats

Do you like cats? Do you know that there are some interesting idioms (a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own) related to cats? Let's take a look:


  1. You call someone is a 'fat cat' if he or she is smugly wealthy and powerful.

  2. When someone are unusually quiet, you may say 'Has the cat got your tongue?' to ask them to speak.

  3. If there is 'not enough room to swing a cat', the place is very small or very crowded.

  4. When someone keeps asking you questions about something you don't want to talk about, you can say 'curiosity killed the cat' to warn them not to pry into your affairs.

  5. If your teacher says you 'haven't a cat in hell's chance' to pass the exam, you better go revise for the exam as your teacher thinks that you have no chance of passing the exam at all!

  6. Someone is 'putting the cat among the pigeons' if that person says or does something that causes trouble and makes a lot of people angry or worried.

  7. You may be crossed if you want to keep a secret but someone 'let the cat out of the bag' - they revealed the secret by accident.

  8. Someone is 'like a cat on a hot tin roof' if they are extremely nervous or worried.

  9. If you 'look like something the cat dragged in', you look very dirty or untidy.
  10. If you are ‘playing cat and mouse’, you try to defeat someone by tricking that person into making a mistake so that you have an advantage over them.