Heading
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 oft
the fire, current in the sixteenth
century, but varying considerably
in details. The earliest printed
