cat

Less common meanings

4. 4
   medical scannounabbreviation

   Abbreviation of computed axial tomography.

   The radiologist compared the CAT images taken six months apart.

   They scheduled a CAT scan to locate the source of the bleeding.

   UsageWritten in capitals and usually before another noun: a CAT scan. CT scan means the same.

   Note

   The full name, computed axial tomography, is now dated and is sometimes expanded as computerized axial tomography. It named the original, axial type of computed tomography, which is why CT scan stands beside CAT scan.

5. 5
   dudenoundatedfigurativelycountable

   Any person, especially a man, spoken of casually as a guy or fellow.

   Some cool cat at the bar offered to buy the whole band a round.

   A couple of cats from the old neighborhood showed up at the reunion.

   UsageOften some cat for a stranger, or a cool cat.

   Similarguy, dude, fellow, chap, bloke

   Note

   A word for a fellow that ran through popular song. Peggy Lee's 1958 recording of "Fever" uses it for men in general, set against chicks for women, and the singer of "Starman" (1972) uses it for a stranger heard on the radio. The word is now dated slang, though Shaquille O'Neal's "Fiend '98" (1998) still uses it to sneer at the rivals he addresses.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   Chiefly with a descriptive word, an animal outside the family Felidae that somewhat resembles a domestic cat.

   The native cat of Australia is actually a small marsupial, not a feline.

   Trappers once prized the ring-tailed cat for its soft pelt.

   UsageMostly the second half of a name: civet cat, polecat, ring-tailed cat.

7. 7
   meatnoununcountable

   The flesh of the domestic cat when eaten as food.

   Travelers wrote of regions where cat appeared on the table in times of famine.

   A few old recipes treated cat much like rabbit, stewed slowly with herbs.

   UsageFor the meat, no a and no plural: they ate cat, as with chicken or lamb.

   Note

   Drop the article and the plural, and cat becomes meat, the way chicken and lamb do. A scene in Harry Stephen Keeler's The Case of the Jeweled Ragpicker (1948) plays on exactly this shift. Asked whether people eat cats, an old man answers, shocked, "Do they eat cat?" The mass noun names the dish, and the plural names the living animals. Peter Hessler (2013) reports cat eaten for its lively spirit, jingshen. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Harry Stephen Keeler wrote The Case of the Jeweled Ragpicker, first published in 1948. site.xavier.edu
   • Asked whether people eat cats, a little old man replies, profoundly shocked, 'Do they eat cat?' en.wiktionary.org
   • The cited Hessler collection, Strange Stones, was published in 2013. hkpl.overdrive.com
   • Hessler reports that people eat cat for its supposedly lively spirit, jingshen. newyorker.com
8. 8
   tracked vehiclenouncountable

   A vehicle that runs on caterpillar tracks, especially a bulldozer or other earth-moving machine (from the maker Caterpillar) or a snowcat.

   The patrol took a cat over the glacier because no wheeled truck could grip the ice.

   A line of cats laid fresh corduroy across the ski runs before dawn.

9. 9
   exhaust partnounabbreviation

   Abbreviation of catalytic converter.

   The mechanic replaced the rusted cat during the emissions repair.

   A clogged cat will choke the engine and sap its power.

   Note

   The clipped name for the exhaust chamber in which a metal catalyst turns carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water. It keeps only the first syllable of catalytic. In talk about cars, a cat that fails or clogs is this part, never the animal. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Cat abbreviates catalytic converter, retaining the opening syllable of catalytic. en.wiktionary.org
   • Platinum is one possible catalyst; converters can also use palladium and other catalytic metals. nepis.epa.gov
   • Catalytic converters oxidize carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide. aps.anl.gov
10. 10
    punishment whipnouncountableabbreviationellipsis

    Ellipsis of cat-o'-nine-tails.

    The captain ordered the cat brought up for the morning's punishment.

    Sailors dreaded the cat more than any other discipline aboard ship.

    Note

    The clipped name for the knotted whip of naval punishment, which also served British penal colonies and certain armies. The Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York (1839) record one wound with wire. The flogging verb is built directly from it.

11. 11
    two-hulled boatnounabbreviation

    Abbreviation of catamaran.

    The cat heeled gently as the crew trimmed both sails.

    A light cat will plane across flat water far faster than a monohull.

    Note

    The short name for a twin-hulled boat, heard in Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer (1966): "These cats are a lot of fun in the harbor." Oddly, catamaran once also meant a quarrelsome woman, a scold. That obsolete sense lands close to the insult for a spiteful woman, but the clipping keeps to the boat. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • Cat abbreviates catamaran, a twin-hulled boat. en.wikipedia.org
    • Bruce Brown directed and narrated The Endless Summer. en.wikipedia.org
    • 1966 is the film's general distribution year. brucebrownfilms.com
    • The quoted words occur in The Endless Summer. en.wiktionary.org
    • Catamaran formerly meant a quarrelsome woman or scold. en.wiktionary.org
    • That historical sense resembles the insulting sense of cat applied to a woman. gutenberg.org
12. 12
    fishnounabbreviation

    Abbreviation of catfish.

    He cleaned the cat right there on the riverbank before heading home.

    That channel cat put up a real fight before we landed it.

    UsageUsually after the kind, as in channel cat; after fish for it often has no a and no plural: fish for cat.

    Note

    Willa Cather's O Pioneers! (1913) sends boys to the river "to fish for channel cat." A Field and Stream piece from 1916 calls fishing for cat the least exciting of such sports, up to a point.

13. 13
    jazz musiciannounslangfigurativelycountable

    Someone who plays jazz, or someone with a keen enthusiasm for it.

    Every cat in the band could trade solos without missing a beat.

    The hippest cats packed the smoky basement to hear the new trio.

    UsageOften a jazz cat, or with an instrument: some cat on the saxophone.

    Similarhepcat

    Note

    The jazz world's word for its own players and devotees, first used in the United States. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, in "Hold on to Yourself" (2008), use it for someone heard playing the saxophone. Hepcat is its close synonym. When the music drops out of view, the word drifts toward the slang word for any fellow.

14. 14
    mean womannounderogatoryoffensivefigurativelycountable or uncountable

    A person, typically a woman, who behaves with malice or anger toward others.

    Everyone in the office knew she could be a cat whenever someone else got the credit.

    "Don't mind my aunt," he whispered. "She's an old cat who will criticize your cooking behind your back."

    UsageA hurtful insult, mostly aimed at women; keep it for reported speech. The adjective catty, as in a catty remark, is the everyday word.

    Similarbitch

    Note

    An insult with a long record of being aimed at women. "The Pigs," an 1835 poem in The New-England Magazine, says that within a month a man finds the woman he has won to be a cat, a slut and a scold. The same spite runs through the gossiping verb.

15. 15
    Unix programnoun

    A Unix program and command that reads one or more files and sends their contents to the standard output.

    Type cat followed by a filename to dump its text to the screen.

    He piped the output of cat into grep to search the log.

    Note

    A Unix name clipped from catenate (a variant of concatenate), which describes the program's real job: it reads files one after another and joins their contents into a single stream. Showing one file on screen is simply the case where only one file is joined. Concat is a clipping of concatenate, and neither has anything to do with the animal.

16. 16
    Unix programverbtransitive

    In Unix-like systems, to process one or more files with the cat command.

    If you cat the README, you'll find the install steps near the top.

    He catted both error logs and piped the output into grep.

    UsageThe object is the file: cat the log. The forms are catted and catting.

17. 17
    gossipverbintransitive

    To gossip in a spiteful, catty manner.

    Men from young to middleaged, with matt faces, vivacious and brightly dressed, catted together in gay groups.

    1932, Hugh Brooke, Man Made Angry

    They smiled, touched, rolled their eyes and raised their eyebrows, as they relived the audition and catted about some of their competition.

    1996, Alistair Boyle, The Unlucky Seven

    Similargossip

    Note

    Gossip with claws, and the verb usually takes about before its target. In Alistair Boyle's The Unlucky Seven (1997), rivals "catted about some of their competition." It can also be done as a group, as in Hugh Brooke's Man Made Angry (1932), where men "catted together in gay groups." The spite is the same one carried by the insult for a spiteful person. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Alistair Boyle wrote The Unlucky Seven, which contains the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
    • Hugh Brooke wrote Man Made Angry, published in 1932. books.google.com
    • Man Made Angry describes men using the exact quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
18. 18
    whip someoneverbtransitive

    To flog someone with a cat-o'-nine-tails.

    The officer threatened to cat any man caught stealing rations.

    They catted the thief until his back was raw.

    Similarflog, whip, lash, scourge

    Note

    Built directly from the clipped name for the whip: to cat a man was to bring the cat-o'-nine-tails down on his back. It shares catted and catting with the anchor-hoisting verb, so aboard ship only the object tells them apart. One verb takes a sailor, the other an anchor. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • To cat someone means to flog them with a cat-o'-nine-tails. en.wiktionary.org
    • The flogging and anchor-hoisting senses share the forms catted and catting. en.wiktionary.org
    • The two transitive senses distinguish a person being flogged from an anchor being hoisted. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    drugnounslanguncountable

    A street name for methcathinone, a stimulant drug.

    Investigators traced a homemade batch of cat back to a basement lab.

    She admitted to buying cat from the same supplier for months.

    Note

    Street slang clipped from inside the drug's chemical name, methcathinone. On its own, cat is easily heard as the animal unless the talk is already about drugs.

20. 20
    vagina (rude)nounslangvulgarcountable or uncountable

    A vulgar slang term for the vulva or vagina.

    The track's hook was just one more boast about getting some cat.

    He kept dropping crude lines about cat until the room went quiet.

    Similarpussy

    Note

    A vulgar slang word for the female genitals, recorded in slang dictionaries by the 1890s. It appears in Iceberg Slim's Pimp: The Story of My Life and in later fiction.

21. 21
    terribleadjectivecolloquialIreland

    Extremely bad; disastrous or catastrophic.

    Traffic on the way home was cat after the road closed.

    She said the film was cat and walked out halfway through.

    UsageUsually after be: the traffic was cat. It has no -er or more forms.

    Similarawful, terrible, disastrous, rubbish

    Oppositegreat

22. 22
    game sticknounarchaiccountable

    In the game of tipcat, the pointed wooden piece that the players hit.

    Note

    An archaic name from the playground. The game's own name, tipcat, keeps the word alive inside it. The cat is the small pointed billet that gets struck, not the stick that strikes it. Outside descriptions of old games the sense is effectively gone. Trap ball, another old game, also used cat, there for the trap that sends the ball up. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The game name tipcat incorporates cat. en.wiktionary.org
    • The cat is the small pointed wooden piece struck in tipcat. en.wiktionary.org
    • The striking stick is distinct from the cat. en.wikipedia.org
    • Cat also denoted the trap used in trap ball. en.wiktionary.org
    • The trap launches the ball into the air. en.wiktionary.org
23. 23
    noun

    Abbreviation of catapult.
24. 24
    nounslangUS

    An itinerant worker who moves from place to place in search of jobs.
25. 25
    verb

    To raise an anchor by its ring until it hangs from the cathead.
26. 26
    noun

    On a ship, a heavy tackle for hauling the anchor up to the cathead.
27. 27
    noun

    A wheeled shelter used in the Middle Ages to protect attackers as they approached the defenses of a besieged stronghold.

    From behind the narrow slits in the walls of Castellar, crossbowmen and archers took aim at the juddering cat as it came closer.

    2000, Stephen O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy
28. 28
    noun

    A double tripod for holding a plate or similar object, with six feet, three of which rest on the ground in any position it is placed.
29. 29
    nounobsolete

    A woman who sells sex for money.

    "Tell me. Willie said there was a cat in love with you. That isn't true, is it?" "Yes. It's true," Hudson corrects her, letting her think that by "cat" he means prostitute.

    1999, Carl P. Eby, Hemingway’s Fetishism: Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood
30. 30
    nounarchaic

    Trap ball, an old bat-and-ball game, or the hinged wooden trap used to launch the ball in it.
31. 31
    nounarchaic

    A strong cargo-carrying sailing ship of former times, a sense that survives today only in catboat.
32. 32
    verbarchaic

    To throw up the contents of the stomach.

    ‘He's going to cat, Maxim,’ said the Pussum warningly. The suave young Russian rose and took Halliday by the arm, leading him away.

    1921, DH Lawrence, Women in Love
33. 33
    verb

    To roam about at night, like a cat on the prowl.
34. 34
    verbslang

    To flood a person or system that is not ready for it with a mass of data, usually with no plan to examine it closely.