English

Etymology 1

Old North French cat (confer French chat), from Latin cattus.

Pronunciation

• IPA : /kăt/
• IPA : /kæt/
• SAMPA : /k{t/
  • Rhymes: -æt

Noun

cat, plural cats

1. Any member of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, etc. Big cat is a common term for the larger members only.
2. A domesticated species of the cat family (Felis silvestris) commonly kept as a house pet.
3. (nautical) A contraction of cat o' nine tails . No room to swing a cat.
4. A player or enthusiast of jazz.
5. A spiteful woman.
6. A catfish.
7. A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.
8. A catboat .
9. A catamaran.

Synonyms

• (any member of Felidae): feline
• (domestic species): tame cat , housecat
• (man): bloke (British), chap (British), cove (British), dude, fellow, guy
• (spiteful woman): bitch

Proverbs/Idioms

• The cat's whiskers ~ excellent, outstanding
• The cat's meow
• Cat and mouse game
• While the cat's away the mice will play
• "Fight like cats and dogs" ~ To fight vigorously without weapons, often used about children (The children fought like cats and dogs over who would get the biggest piece of cake.)
• Rain cats and dogs

Related terms

• bobcat
• catwalk
• cat's paw
• cat-house
• catty
• Cheshire Cat
• dead cat
• fat cat
• kitten
• wildcat
• wild cat

See also

• feline

Translations

member of Felidae

domestic species

cat o' nine tails See cat o' nine tails

player of jazz

enthusiast of jazz

spiteful woman See bitch

catfish See catfish

strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship

catboat See catboat

catamaran See catamaran

Translations to be checked

The translations below need to be checked by native speakers and inserted into the appropriate table(s) above. The numbering is unreliable.

• Afrikaans: kat
• Albanian: macja
• Arabic: قِطٌّ (qiTT)
• Basque: katu
• Belarusian: кошка
• Bosnian: mačka f, mačak m
• Breton: kazh m kizhier pl, kazhez f -ed pl
• Bulgarian: котка f
• Catalan: gat, moix m, gata, moixa f
• Chinese: 猫 (māo)
• Croatian: mačka
• Czech: devítiocasá kočka (3)
• Danish: kat
• Dutch: kat m, poes f, kater m
• Esperanto: kato
• Estonian: kass
• Faroese: ketta
• Frisian: kat
• Friulian: gjat
• Galician: gato
• Guaraní: mbarakaja (1)
• Greek: αγριόγατα (agriόgata)
• Hungarian: macska cica f kandúr m
• Icelandic: köttur
• Interlingua: catto m, catta f (1); felino m, felina f;
• Irish: cat
• Japanese: 猫 (ねこ, neko)
• Kannada: bekku
• Korean: 고양이 (go-yang-i)
• Ladin: giat
• Latin: feles f, cattus m (later)
• Latvian: kaķis
• Lithuanian: katė
• Lower Sorbian: kocka
• Macedonian: мачка (mačka)
• Maltese: qattus
• Mongolian: муур (muur)
• Occitan: cat
• Polish: kot m, kotka f, kotek m, kocur m, kocica f
• Romanian: pisică f, motan m, cotoi m, mâţă f
• Romansh: giat
• Romany: murtano m, mutsa f
• Sami: bussá
• Sardinian: gattu , pisittu , muscittu/-a , pisiddu , battu
• Scottish: cat
• Serbian: мачка (mačka)
• Slovak: kocúr m, mačka f (1)
• Slovenian: mačka f (1, 2), maček m (2)
• Slovio: kot n
• Swedish: katt
• Turkish: kedi
• Ukrainian: кіт , кішка (kit, kiška )
• Upper Sorbian: kóčka
• Welsh: cath

Etymology 2

Contraction of "concatenate", from Latin concatenare, "to chain together", from con-, "with", + catena, "chain", + perfect passive participle suffix -atus .

Proper Noun

cat (no plural)

1. (computing) A program and command in Unix that directs the entire contents of a file to an output device in one go. Compare more, less.

Transitive verb

to cat

1. (computing) To apply the cat command to (a file).
2. (computing) (slang) By extension, to dump large amounts of data on an unprepared target or with no intention of browsing it carefully.

Etymology 3

From the Wolof suffix -kat .

Noun

cat

1. (slang) a man