Idioms related to cats
Last Modified: 01/12/2016
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:
- You call someone is a 'fat cat' if he or she is smugly wealthy and powerful.
- When someone are unusually quiet, you may say 'Has the cat got your tongue?' to ask them to speak.
- If there is 'not enough room to swing a cat', the place is very small or very crowded.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- Someone is 'like a cat on a hot tin roof' if they are extremely nervous or worried.
- If you 'look like something the cat dragged in', you look very dirty or untidy.
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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.