cat

Pronunciation

• (UK) (US) enPR: kăt, IPA ^(key): /kæt/ or [kʰæt] or [kʰæt̚]
• (UK) IPA ^(key): /kat/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US-Inland North)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

Singular cat

Plural cats

A cat

1. (countable) A cat is a domestic animal often kept as a pet; it has whiskers and likes to chase mice.
   • Synonyms: puss, pussy and feline

   Our pet cat has just had kittens.

2. Cats refers to the family of many different wild animals that are related to the domestic cat.

   Lions and tigers are big cats.

3. A cat is a short-form for a catfish.
4. (slang) A cat refers to a person who is a prostitute.
5. A cat refers to a catamaran.
6. (computing) The cat command, a Unix computer program used to read one or more files and output its contents.
7. (military) Cat is a short-form for a catapult.

Related words

• caterwaul
• catty
• cathead
• catboat
• catwalk
• catfish
• copycat
• catlike

See also

• category
• caterpillar
• kitten

Verb

Plain form cat

Third-person singular cats

Past tense catted

Past participle catted

Present participle catting

1. (nautical) If you cat an anchor, you lift it onto the cathead.
2. (slang) If you cat, you vomit out something.
3. (computing) When you cat, you apply the cat command on a Unix computer.

Adjective

Positive cat

Comparative none

Superlative none

1. (informal) (Ireland) When something is cat, it is terrible and not good.

   The weather these few days has been cat, so we decided to cancel our outing to the beach.