Rats walk at their ease if cats do not them meese. Wodroephe, 1623. Rogues abound where laws are weak.
Send not a cat for lard. George Herbert. Put not any to temptation.
So as cat is after kind. Near friends are dearest. Birds of a feather flock together.
Take the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw. Making use of others to save oneself.
Never was cat or dog drowned that could see the shore. To know the way often brings a right ending.
None but cats and dogs are allowed to quarrel here. All else agree.
No playing with a straw before an old cat. Heywood, 1562. Every trifling toy age cannot laugh at. "Youth and Folly, Age and Wisdom."
Like a cat round hot milk. Wait and have; all things come to those who wait.
Little and little the cat eateth the stickle. Heywood. Constant dropping weareth a stone.
Long and slender like a cat's elbow. Hazlitt. A sneer at the ill-favoured.
Love me, love my cat. This refers to one marrying; in taking a wife he must take her belongings. Or, where you like, you must avoid contention.
Just as quick as a cat up a walnut-tree. D'Urfey. To climb well and easily. To be alert and sudden.
Let the cat wink, and let the mouse run. For want of watching and care much is lost. Hazlitt's "Dodsley," i. 265. The first portion is in the interlude of "The World and the Child," 1522.
Like a cat he'll fall on his legs. To succeed, never to fail, always right.
How can the cat help it when the maid is a fool? Often things lost, given, or stolen, are laid to the cat.
If thou 'scap'st, thou hast cat's luck, in Fletcher's Knight of Malta, alluding to the activity and caution of the cat, which generally stands it in good stead.
I'll not buy a cat in a poke. F., Chat en Poche. See what you buy; bargain not on another's word.
He lives at the sign of the cat's foot. He is hen-pecked, his wife scratches him. Ray.
He wald gar a man trow that the moon is made of green cheis, or the cat took the heron. Never believe all that is laid to another.
Honest as the cat when the meat is out of reach. Some are honest, but others not by choice.
He can hold the cat to the sun. Bold and foolish enough for anything.
He is like a dog or a cat. Not reliable.
He looks like a wild cat out of a bush. Fiercely afraid.
He's like a cat; fling him which way you will, he'll not hurt. Some are always superior to misfortune, or fortune favours many.
He's like a singed cat, better than he's likely. He's better than he looks or seems.
He stands in great need that borrows the cat's dish. Clarke, 1639. The starving are not particular. The hungry cannot choose.
Cats after kind good mouse hunt. Heywood. Letter by F. A. touching the quarrel between Arthur Hall and Melch Mallorie, in 1575-6, repr. of ed. 1580, in "Miscy. Antiq. Anglic." 1816, p. 93. "For never yet was good cat out of kinde." English Proverbs, Hazlitt.
Cats and Carlins sit in the sun. When work is done then warmth and rest.
Cats eat what hussies spare. Nothing is lost. Also refers to giving away, and saying "the cat took it."
Cats hide their claws. All is not fair that seems so. Trust not to appearances.
Cry you mercy, killed my cat. Clarke, 1639. Better away, than stay and ask pardon.
Every day's no yule; cast the cat a castock. The stump of a cabbage, and the proverb means much the same thing as "Spare no expense, bring another bottle of small beer." Denham's Popular Sayings, 1846.
He bydes as fast as a cat bound with a sacer. He does as he likes; nothing holds him.
Care killed the cat, but ye canna live without it. To all some trouble, though not all take heed. None know another's burden.
Care will kill a cat.
"Then hang care and sorrow,Alluding to its tenacity of life and the carking wear of care.
1664, Cotton's Virgile, Book 4.
By biting and scratching dogs and cats come together. Heywood. Quarrelling oft makes friends.
Care clammed a cat. Sir G. C. Lewis's "Herefordshire Glossary." Clammed means starvation; that is, care killed the cat; for want of food the entrails get "clammed."
Shakespeare.
Gib-cat; an old, lonely, melancholy cat.
Before the cat can lick her ear. "Nay, you were not quite out of hearing ere the cat could lick her ear." Oviddius Exultans, 1673, p. 50. That is never.
Dun, besides being the name of one who arrested for debt in Henry VII.'s time, was also the name of the hangman before "Jack Ketch." Grose.
"And presently a halter got,The Christmas Prince, 1607.
As gray as Grannum's cat. Hazlitt. So old as to be likely to be doubly gray.
As melancholy as a cat. Walker. The voice of the cat is melancholy.
As melancholy as a gib-cat (Scotch). As an old, worn-out cat. Johnston.
"I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugged bear."A muffled cat is no good mouser. Clarke, 1639. No good workman wears gloves. By some is said "muzzled."
A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat. A little of good is better than much that is bad.
A scalded cat fears cold water. Once bit always shy. What was may be again.
As cat or cap case.
"Bouser I am not, but mild sober Tuesday,Ale that would make a cat talk. Strong enough to make even the dumb speak.
"A spicy pot,A half-penny cat may look at a king (Scotch). A jeering saying of offence "One is as good as another," and as a Scotchman once said, "and better."
A dead cat feels no cold. No life, no pain, nor reproach.
A dog hath a day. Heywood. In Essex folks add: And a cat has two Sundays. Why?
The shape of a good greyhound:
A head like a snake, a neck like a drake, A back like a beam, sided like a bream, A foot like a cat, a tail like a rat.
"A Cat may Look at a King," is the title of a book on history, published in the early part of the last century. On the frontispiece is the picture of a cat, over it the inscription, "A cat may look at a king," and a king's head and shoulders on the title-page, with the same inscription above.
A cat's walk, a little way and back (Cornwall). No place like home. Idling about.
A BLATE cat makes a proud mouse (Scotch). An idle, or stupid, or timid foe is never feared.
A cat has nine lives, a woman has nine lives. In Middleton's Blurt Master Constable, 1602, we have: "They have nine lives apiece, like a woman."
A cat may look at a king. In Cornwall they say a cat may look at a king if he carries his eyes about him.
Kit, or kitten. A young cat. A young cat is a kitten until it is full-grown, then kittenhood ceases.
A school-boy being asked to describe a kitten, replied: "A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there."
Puss gentleman. An effeminate man. Davis, Glossary.
"I cannot talk with civet in th' room,Cowper's Conversations.
Kittenhood. State of being a kitten.
"For thou art as beautiful as ever a catSouthey.
Kittenish, kitten-like.
"Such a kittenish disposition in her, I called it; ...the love of playfulness." Richardson.
Kittie. A North-country name for a cat, male or female.
Kitling. Sharp; kitten-like.
"His kitling eyes begin to runHerrick, Hesperides.
Catter. 1. Catarrh (Bellenden). 2. A supposed disease of the fingers from handling cats.
Catterbatch. A broil, a quarrel (Fife). Teut., kater, a he-cat, and boetse, rendered cavillatio, q., "a cat's quarrel."
Catwittit. Harebrained, unsettled; q., having the wits of a cat (S.).
Catsteps. The projections of the stones in the slanting part of a gable (Roxb.). Corbie-steps, synon.
Cat's-Tails. Hare's Tail Rush (Eriophorum vaginatum). Linn. Mearns; also called Canna-down, Cat Tails (Galloway).
Catten-Clover., Cat-in-Clover. The Lotus (South of S.). Sw., Katt-klor (Cat's Claws).
Catstone. One of the upright stones which support a grate, there being one on each side (Roxb.). Since the introduction of Carron grates these stones are found in kitchens only. The term is said to originate from this being the favourite seat of the cat. See Catstone (English).
Catstone-head. The flat top of the Catstone (ibid.).
Cat-siller.. The mica of mineralogists (S.); the katzen silber of the vulgar in Germany. Teut., katten silver, amiantus, mica, vulgo argentum felium; Kilian.
Cat's Lug. The name given to the Auricula ursi. Linn. (Roxburgh.).
Cat's Stairs. A plaything for children, made of thread, small cord, or tape, which is so disposed by the hands as to fall down like steps of a stair (Dumfr., Gall.).
Cat's Crammocks. Clouds like hairs streaming from an animal's tail (Shetland).
Cat's Hair. 1. The down that covers unfledged birds (Fife); synon. Paddockhair. 2. The down on the face of boys before the beard grows (S.). 3. Applied also to the thin hair that often grows on the bodies of persons in bad health (S.).
Catmaw. "To tumble the catmaw," to go topsy-turvy, to tumble (S. B.).
Catmint. An herbaceous plant (Mentha felina), that cats delight to roll on.
Cat's Carriage. The same play that is otherwise called the "King's Cushion," q.v. (Loth.).
Cat's Cradle. A plaything for children, made of pack-thread on the fingers of one person, and transferred from them to those of another (S.).
Catling. Small catgut strings for musical instruments, also a kind of knife used in surgery.
Cat-loup. 1. A very short distance as to space (S.); q. as far as a cat may leap (Hogg). 2. A moment; as, "I'se be wi' ye in a catloup" i.e., instantly. "I will be with you as quickly as a cat can leap."
Cat-hud. The name given to a large stone, which serves as a back to a fire on the hearth in the house of a cottager (Dumfr.). Sw. G., kaette, denotes a small cell or apartment, which corresponds to the form of the country fireside; also a bed; a pen. Hud might seem allied to Teut. huyd-en, conservare, as the stone is meant to guard this enclosure from the effects of the fire.
