1885. S. O. Addy, in N. and Q., 6 S., xii., 143. This seemed to be
like one of those catchy questions which examiners in law and
history are said to ‘stump’ the candidates.
Caterpillar, subs. (old).—A soldier. For synonyms, see Mudcrusher.
Caterwaul, verb (colloquial).—Properly to make a noise like cats at
rutting time; to woo, to ‘make love.’ The quotations show the process
of transition from the old figurative usage of the word, to be ‘in
heat,’ ‘to be lecherous,’ to the current sense. For synonyms, see
Firkytoodle.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 284. The friars and monks
caterwawld from the abbots and priors to the novices.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, Act i., Sc. 9. An old aunt, who
loves catterwauling better than a conventicle.
1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, l. 64. I hope you have worked a
reformation among them [servant-maids], as I exhorted you in my
last, and set their hearts upon better things than they can find in
junketting and caterwauling with the fellows of the country.
1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. xvii. From what I hear, you
came to Riddleton fooling after my daughter. Now, I’ll have no
caterwauling of that sort.
Catever, subs. (common).—A queer, or singular affair; anything poor or
bad. [From the Lingua Franca, and Italian cattivo, bad.] Variously
spelled by the lower orders.—Hotten.
Catfish Death, subs. (American).—Suicide by drowning.
c. 1889. Chicago Press [quoted by Barrère].... driving his
sweetheart to lunacy and a catfish death, by his dime-museum
freaks.
Catgut-Scraper, subs. (common).—A fiddler. [From catgut, the material
of which fiddle strings are made, + scraper, one that rubs or scrapes.]
Sometimes simply scraper or catgut; the latter of which is also used to
signify the music produced. Also Rosin-the-bow and Teaser of the
Catgut.
1633. Massinger, Guardian, IV., ii. Wire-string and catgut, men and
strong-breathed heautbois. [m.]
1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars. Her charms had struck a sturdy caird,
As weel’s a poor gut-scraper.
1796. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Tristia, wks. (1812) V., 267. Behold!
the Catgut-scraper with his croud Commands at will the house of
hospitality.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 21. Or
they will call to the orchestra, saying, ‘Now then you
catgut-scraper! Let’s have a ha’purth of liveliness.’
Cat Harping Fashion, adv. phr. (nautical).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Drinking cross ways, and not as
usual over the left thumb.
Cat Heads, subs. (old).—The paps. For synonyms, see Dairy.
Cathedral, subs. (Winchester College).—A high hat. [So called because
only worn when going to the Cathedral.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.
Adj. (old)—Old-fashioned; antique.
1690. B. E., Dictionary Canting Crew. Cathedral: old-fashioned, out
of Date, Ancient.
1755. Johnson. Cathedral: in low phrase, antique, venerable, old.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Cathedral:
old-fashioned, an old cathedral bedstead, chair, etc.
Catharine Puritans, subs. phr. (University).—Members of St. Catharine’s
Hall, at Cambridge. [Puritan from the pun on the words Catharine and
Καθαίρειν = to purify.] They were also called Doves (q.v.).
Catherine Hayes, subs. (Australian).—See quot. [The derivation may
presumedly be traced to the immense popularity of the Irish singer at
the antipodes.]
1859. Frank Fowler, Southern Light and Shadows, p. 53. [A liquor
consisting of] claret, sugar, and nutmeg.
Cat’s, subs. (University).—A short name for St. Catharine’s Hall.
Cat’s Men, subs. (University).—Members of St. Catharine’s Hall.
Catherine Wheel.—See Cartwheel.
Cat-Lap, subs. (common).—Thin potations of any sort, especially tea.
Such a beverage being so feeble as to be only fit for women. For
synonyms, see Scandal broth.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cat-lap: tea, called also scandal
broth.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xiii. We have tea and coffee aboard
... You are at the age to like such catlap.
1864. M. E. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ch. xvii. ‘I’ve mashed the tea
for ’ee,’ said the ‘softy’; ‘I thought you’d like a coop.’ The
trainer shrugged his shoulders. ‘I can’t say I’m particular
attached to the cat-lap,’ he said, laughing.
Cat-Market, subs. (common).—A number of people all talking at once.
‘You make a row like a cat-market’—a general ‘caterwauling.’
Cat-Match, subs. (old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cat Match: when a rook or cully is
engaged amongst bad bowlers.
Catoller or Catolla, subs. (old).—A noisy, prating fellow.—See quot.
1832. Pierce Egan, Book of Sports, p. 70. [Catolla is given as a
foolish, betting man.]
Cat-o’-Nine-Tails or Cat, subs. (common).—A nine-lashed scourge now
used for the punishment of criminals, but until 1881 the authorised
means of punishment in the British army and navy. [From cat, a beast
with claws, + o’ + nine tails, the nine knotted lashes.] History is
against the view of some military authorities that the
cat-o’-nine-tails was a Batavian importation of William III., and that
the word ‘cat’ is derived from the Sclavonic kat, an executioner, or
from katowae, to lash or torture. Another theory is that it was
introduced at the time of the Armada (1588), when vast numbers of these
‘straunge whips’ were found in the captured ships of the Spaniards. A
ballad of the period declares of the Spaniards that—
They made such whippes wherewith no man Would seeme to strike a
dogge; So strengthened eke with brasen tagges And filde so roughe
and thinne, That they would force at every lash The bloud abroad to
spinne.
This view is not inconsistent with the quotations, the first of which
antedates the earliest given in the N.E.D. by thirty years.] In prison
parlance the cat-o’-nine-tails is known as number one or the
nine-tailed bruiser (q.v.), the birch as number two (q.v.).
1665. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iii., p. 28 (1874). A Cat
of Nine-tails (as he called it) being so many small cords.
1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend, prologue. You dread reformers of an
impious age, You awful cat-a-nine-tails to the stage.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. v. ‘I’ll bring him to the gangway,
and anoint him with a cat-a-nine-tails.’
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., pt. III., bk. VII., ch. iii. Rash coalised
kings, such a fire have ye kindled; yourselves fireless, your
fighters animated only by drill-sergeants, mess-room moralities,
and the drummer’s cat.
Cat-Party; also Bitch-Party, subs. (common).—A party consisting
entirely of women. [From cat, a woman, + party.] Cf., Stag-party, and
see Hen-Party for synonyms.
Cats, subs. (commercial).—Atlantic Seconds were formerly so-called for
telegraphic purposes.
Cats and Dogs. To rain cats and dogs, sometimes extended to and
pitchforks and shovels, phr. (popular).—To rain heavily. [The French
catadoupe, a waterfall, has been suggested as the origin. Another
etymon has been found in the Greek κατὰ δόξαν in reference to the
downpour being out of the common. Possibly Swift, who seems to have
been the first to have used the expression, may have evolved it out of
his own description of a city shower (1710).]
Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow, And bear their
trophies with them as they go.... Drown’d puppies, stinking sprats,
all drench’d in mud, Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down
the flood.]
1738. Swift, Pol. Convers., dial. 2. I know Sir John will go,
though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.
1819 (Feb. 25). Shelley to Peacock, in Letters, etc. (Camelot), p.
264. After two months of cloudless serenity, it began raining cats
and dogs.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Blasphemer’s Warning). But it rains cats and
dogs and you’re fairly wet through Ere you know where to turn, what
to say, or to do.
Cat’s Foot. To live under the cat’s foot, phr. (old).—To be under
petticoat government; hen-pecked. Cf., Apron-string.—See Cat’s-paw.
Cat’s Head, subs. (Winchester College).—The end of a shoulder of
mutton; further explained by quotation.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 84. His meal
[dinner] took place at six o’clock p.m. in College (in Commoners’
it was at one); it was ample in quantity, and excellent in quality.
That of the Præfects was nicely served in joints, that of the
Inferiors was divided into portions, (Dispars; there were, if I
remember rightly, six of these to a shoulder, and eight to a leg of
mutton, the other joints being divided in like proportion. All
these ‘Dispars’ had different names; the thick slice out of the
centre was called ‘a Middle Cut,’ that out of the shoulder a
‘Fleshy,’ the ribs ‘Racks,’ the loin ‘Long Dispars’; these were the
best, the more indifferent were the end of the shoulder, or Cat’s
head, the breast, or ‘Fat Flab,’ etc., etc.)
Catskin-Earls, subs. (parliamentary).—The three senior earls in the
House of Lords, viz., the Earls of Shrewsbury, Derby, and Huntingdon,
the only three earldoms before the seventeenth century now existing,
save those that (like Arundel, Rutland, etc.), are merged in higher
titles, and the anomalous earldom of Devon (1553), resuscitated in
1831. [A correspondent of Notes and Queries (7 S. ix., p. 314) suggests
that the reason of the application may be that in the seventeenth or
late in the sixteenth century an order was issued for the use of ermine
instead of the skin of cats—(but were such skins then used?)—for the
robes of a peer. If so, however, it is curious that there are not
‘catskin dukes’ and ‘catskin barons’ as well. There is yet another
theory: an earl’s robes consist (now) of but three rows of ermine; but
in some early representations they are shown with four, the same as
(now) a duke; and it has been suggested that these four rows
(quatre-skins) may have given the name of catskin.]
1861–75. Dean Hook, Life of Cardinal Pole, vide note, p. 264. The
Earl of Huntingdon is one of the three Catskin Earls of the present
day.
Cat’s-Meat, subs. (common).—The lungs. [The ‘lights’ or lungs of
animals are usually sold to feed cats.]
Catso, subs. and intj. (old).—The penis. Murray says: ‘Also catzo.’ [a.
It. cazzo = membrum virile. Also an exclamation, Cf., the English
ejaculation, Balls! Florio says: ‘also as cazzica, interjection, “What!
God’s me! God forbid! tush!”’] Frequent in seventeenth century in the
Italian senses; also = rogue, scamp, cullion. Cf., Fr. cul, couillé and
couillon as terms of contempt; also see the later Gadso.
Cat’s-Paw or Cat’s-Foot, subs. (common).—A dupe or tool. [A reference
to the fable (Bertrand et Raton) of a monkey using the paw of a cat,
dog, or fox, to pull roasted chestnuts off the fire, current in the
sixteenth century, but varying considerably in details. The earliest
printed version occurs in John Sambucus’ Emblemata (Plantin, Antwerp,
1564), where the sufferer is a dog, and not a cat. There is, however, a
story of the same kind told (Maiol. Coll. vii., scil Simon Maiolus,
Astensis, Episcopus Vulturariensis, Dies Caniculares, h.e. Colloquia
XXIII., Physica, Collog. vii., p. 249, Ursellis, 1600) of Pope Julius
II., 1503–13 [see N. and Q., 6 S., viii., 35.]]
[1657. M. Hawke. Killing is murder. These he useth as the Monkey
did the cat’s paw to scrape the nuts out of the fire.]
1782. Geo. Parker, Humorous Sketches, p. 140. They lug in Spain, to
their assistance, a cat’s-paw made.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. lvi. Sir Robert, who had rather
begun to suspect that his plebeian neighbour had made a cat’s-paw
of him, inclined his head stiffly.
1878. M. E. Braddon, Cloven Foot, ch. xli. He felt angry with
himself for having been in some wise a cat’s-paw to serve the young
man’s malice.
Cat-Sticks, subs. (old).—Thin legs. [In comparison to the stick used by
boys in the game of tip-cat.] For synonyms see Drumsticks.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
Cat’s-Water, subs. (common).—Gin. [From cat, a woman + water, a white
liquid.] Cf., Bitches’ wine = champagne. For synonyms, see Drinks.
Cattie, adj. and adv. (printers’).—An imperfect or ‘smutty’ look on a
printed sheet, caused by an oily or unclean roller.
Catting, verbal subs. (common).—1. Vomiting.—See Cat, verb.