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sometimes very irreverently, applied to other itinerant professions: even 'school-masters'—there were no 'teachers,' much less 'educators,' in those benighted days—were called catwhippers, when they boarded, as was quite usual, in turns with the parents of their scholars. Itinerating preachers also were, by the initiated, included in this category.
To see how the cat will jump, phr. (common).—To watch the course of events. An American equivalent is to sit on the fence.—See Fence and Jumping Cat.
1827. Scott, in Croker Pap. (1884), I., xi., 319. Had I time, I believe I would come to London merely to see how the cat jumped. [m.]
1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, IV., p. 228. 'But I rely equally on your friendly promise.' 'Promise! No—I don't promise. I must first see how the cat jumps.'
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, III., 229. You'll see with half an eye how the cat jumps.
1874. Sat. Rev., p. 139. This dismays the humble Liberal of the faint Southern type, who thinks that there are subjects as to which the heads of his party need not wait to see how the cat jumps.
1887. 'Pol. Slang,' in Cornhill Mag., June, p. 626. Those who sit on the fence—men with impartial minds, who wait to see, as another pretty phrase has it, how the cat will jump.
You kill my cat and I'll kill your dog, phr. (common). 'Ca' me, 'ca' thee; an exchange in the matter of 'scratching backs'—in Fr. passez moi la casse, et je t'enverrai la senne.
To let the cat out of the bag, phr. (common).—To reveal a secret; a variant with a slightly modified sense is to put one's foot in it. [This and the kindred phrase 'to buy a pig in a poke,' are said to have had their origin in the bumpkin's trick of substituting a cat for a young pig and bringing it to market in a bag. If the customer were wary the cat was let out of the bag, and there was no deal.
1760. Lond. Mag XXIX., p.224. We could have wished that the author . . . had not let the cat out of the bag. [m.]
1782. Wolcot ('P. Pindar'), Pair of Lyric Epistles To the Reader But, to use a sublime phrase, as it would be letting the cat out of the bag, I have fortune.
1811. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 475. She has let a wicked cat out of the bag to G. M. respecting his mother.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North and South, ch. xliv. You needn't look so frightened because you have let the cat out of the bag to a faithful old hermit like me. I shall never name his having been in England.
1888. Macdermott [on the case of Crawford v. Dilke]. This noble representative of everything good in Chelsea, He let the cat, the naughty cat, right out of the Gladstone bag.
Who ate or stole the cat? phr. (common).—A gentleman whose larder was frequently broken by bargees, had a cat cooked and placed as a decoy. It was taken and eaten, and became a standing jest against the pilferers.
To lead a cat and dog life phr. (popular).—To quarrel night and day. Said of married (or unmarried) couples.
To turn cat in the pan, phr. (old).—To 'rat'; to reverse one's position through self-interest; to play the turncoat. [The derivation is absolutely unknown. The one generally received—that 'cat' is a corruption of 'cate' or 'cake'—is historically untenable.]
c. 1559. Old Play, 'Marriage of Witt and Wisdome.' Sc. 3. Now am I true araid like a phesitien; I am as very a turncote as the wethercoke of Poles; For now I will calle my name Due Disporte. So, so, finely I can turne the catt in the pane.
