The word cat is a verb

Educalingo cookies are used to personalize ads and get web traffic statistics. We also share information about the use of the site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.

Download the app
educalingo

One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.

Pam Brown

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD CAT

Old English catte, from Latin cattus; related to Old Norse köttr, Old High German kazza, Old French chat, Russian kot.

PRONUNCIATION OF CAT

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF CAT

Cat is a verb and can also act as a noun.

WHAT DOES CAT MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of cat in the English dictionary

The first definition of cat in the dictionary is Also called: domestic cat. a small domesticated feline mammal, Felis catus, having thick soft fur and occurring in many breeds in which the colour of the fur varies greatly: kept as a pet or to catch rats and mice. Other definition of cat is Also called: big cat. any of the larger felines, such as a lion or tiger. Cat is also any wild feline mammal of the genus Felis, such as the lynx or serval, resembling the domestic cat related adjective feline.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO CAT

PRESENT

PAST

FUTURE

CONDITIONAL

IMPERATIVE

NONFINITE VERB FORMS

SYNONYMS OF «CAT»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «cat» and belong to the same grammatical category.

TRANSLATION OF CAT

Find out the translation of cat to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «CAT»

The term «cat» is very widely used and occupies the 1.625 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of cat

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «CAT» OVER TIME

10 QUOTES WITH «CAT»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word cat.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «CAT»

Discover the use of cat in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to cat and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «CAT»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term cat is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Cat [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/cat>. Apr 2023 ».

The word ‘cat’ is a noun. This means that as a word, it references a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns can be used as subjects or objects within a sentence. These words are often paired with verbs.

How do you find the verb and noun in a sentence?

Identify who or what is completing the action in the sentence. In the sentence “She lifts weights,” “lifts” is the verb, and “she” is the noun. In “The dog ran away,” “ran” is the verb, so “dog” is the noun.

What is noun and pronoun with example?

Nouns are words that refer to specific things or people: for example, phones, umbrellas, or Nicki Minaj. Pronouns, on the other hand, stand in for a previous noun: the same word can refer to several different things. They include words like those, them, and he.

Whats the difference between a regular verb and an irregular verb?

A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb.

What are the 3 steps of conjugation?

1 Answer

• separate the ar/er/ir ending from the verb infinitive leaving the verb stem.
• make any necessary stem changes if the verb is stem changing or irregular.
• add the appropriate verb ending to the stem according to the person of the subject of the verb. ( assuming present tense, indicative mood)

What does it mean if a verb is irregular in French?

Irregular verbs are simply verbs that don’t follow the normal rules of conjugation. For example, regular verbs ending in -er all change their endings the same way when conjugated. Irregular verbs don’t follow these normal rules of conjugation and must be learned individually.

What is the verb 3 of Teach?

Conjugation of ‘Teach’

Base Form (Infinitive):	Teach
Past Simple:	Taught
Past Participle:	Taught
3rd Person Singular:	Teaches
Present Participle/Gerund:	Teaching

What are the examples of irregular verb?

The Most Common Irregular Verbs in English

Irregular Verb	Past Simple	Past Participle
become	became	become
bend	bent	bent
begin	began	begun
bet	bet	bet

Is my cat a noun phrase?

A noun phrase can start with either a noun or a noun modifier….Structure of Noun Phrase.

Type	Example	Explanation
Possessive Pronouns	our cat, his car	“our” & “his” are possessive pronouns that refer to “cat” and “car” respectively.

Is pronoun a verb or noun?

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. A pronoun is usually substituted for a specific noun, which is called its antecedent.

How do you know if an infinitive is a noun adjective or adverb?

An infinitive is a verbal formed by placing to in front of the simple present form of a verb. Infinitives may function as adjectives, adverbs, or nouns. Just like a single-word adjective, an infinitive used as an adjective always describes a noun. An adjectival infinitive always follows the noun it describes.

What is an adverb phrase example?

An adverbial phrase is a group of words that refines the meaning of a verb, adjective, or adverb. The following sentence is an example: “When the show ends, we’re getting dinner.” Whether it’s a phrase or a clause, an adverbial construction is dependent on the main subject and verb.

Which sentences contain an adverb clause?

Examples of Adverb Clauses

• Jennifer scrubbed the bathtub until her arms ached. (This adverb clause describes how Jennifer scrubbed.)
• The dogs started chasing my car once they saw it turn the corner.
• After having my wisdom teeth out, I had a milkshake for dinner because I couldn’t chew anything.

What are introductory adverbs?

Adverbs that come at the beginning of a sentence are called introductory adverbs. Since they introduce the sentence, it’s easy to remember their name! Reluctantly, I stepped outside to shovel the snow.

Translingual[edit]

Symbol[edit]

cat

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Catalan.

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

• Audio (US-Inland North)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt
• Homophones: Kat, khat, qat

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English cat, catte, from Old English catt (“male cat”), catte (“female cat”), from Proto-West Germanic *kattu, from Proto-Germanic *kattuz.

Alternative forms[edit]

• catte (obsolete)

Noun[edit]

cat (plural cats)

1. An animal of the family Felidae:

   • 2011, Karl Kruszelnicki, Brain Food, →ISBN, page 53:

     Mammals need two genes to make the taste receptor for sugar. Studies in various cats (tigers, cheetahs and domestic cats) showed that one of these genes has mutated and no longer works.

   Synonyms: felid, feline, (member of the subfamily Pantherinae) pantherine, (technically, all members of the genus Panthera) panther

   1. A domesticated species (Felis catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet. [from 8^thc.]

      • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.

      Synonyms: puss, pussy, kitty, pussy-cat, kitty-cat, grimalkin; see also Thesaurus:cat

      Hypernyms: housecat, malkin, kitten, mouser, tomcat

   2. Any similar animal of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, bobcats, leopards, cougars, cheetahs, caracals, lynxes, and other such non-domesticated species.

      • 1977, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter’s Adventures in the African Bush, St. Martin’s Press, page 44:

        I grabbed it and ran over to the lion from behind, the cat still chewing thoughtfully on Silent’s arm.

      • 1985 January, George Laycock, «Our American Lion», in Boy Scouts of America, Boys’ Life, 28.

        If you should someday round a corner on the hiking trail and come face to face with a mountain lion, you would probably never forget the mighty cat.

      • 2014, Dale Mayer, Rare Find. A Psychic Visions Novel, Valley Publishing:

        She felt privileged to be here, living the experience inside the majestic cat [i.e. a tiger]; privileged to be part of their bond, even for only a few hours.

2. A person:
   1. (offensive) A spiteful or angry woman. [from early 13^thc.]
      • 1835 September, anonymous, «The Pigs», in The New-England Magazine, Vol. 9, 156.

        But, ere one rapid moon its tale has told, / He finds his prize — a cat — a slut — a scold.

      Synonym: bitch

   2. An enthusiast or player of jazz.

      • 2008, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (lyrics and music), “Hold on to Yourself”:

        I turn on the radio / There’s some cat on the saxophone / Laying down a litany of excuses

   3. (slang) A person (usually male).

      Synonyms: bloke, chap, cove, dude, fellow, fella, guy; see also Thesaurus:man

      • 1972, “Starman”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie:

        Didn’t know what time it was the lights were low / I leaned back on my radio / Some cat was layin’ down some rock’n’roll ‘lotta soul, he said

      • 1973 December, «Books Noted», discussing A Dialogue (by James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni), in Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, 77.

        BALDWIN: That’s what we were talking about before. And by the way, you did not have to tell me that you think your father is a groovy cat; I knew that.

      • 1998, “Fiend”, in Respect, performed by Shaquille O’Neal:

        What fags are true I know what Mack’s might do
        I’m quite familiar with cats like you
        Provoke to get me give me a good reason to smoke me
        Try to break me but never wrote me)

      • 2006, Masta Ace (lyrics), “Sick of it all”, in Pariah:

        I am sick of rappers claiming they hot when they really not
        I am sick of rappers bragging about shit they ain’t really got
        These cats stay rapping about cars they don’t own
        I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don’t bone.[…]
        And I am sick of all these cats with no talent
        That never lived in the hood but yet their lyrics be so violent.

   4. (slang) A prostitute. [from at least early 15^thc.]

      • 1999, Carl P. Eby, Hemingway’s Fetishism. Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood, State University of New York Press, page 124:

        «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.

3. (nautical) A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.

   • 2009, Olof A. Eriksen, Constitution — All Sails Up and Flying, Outskirts Press, page 134:

     Overhaul down & hook the cat, haul taut. Walk away the cat. When up, pass the cat head stopper. Hook the fish in & fish the anchor.

4. (chiefly nautical) Short for cat-o’-nine-tails.

   • 1839, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, testimony by Henry L. Pinckney (Assembly No. 335), page 44:

     […] he whipped a black man for disobedience of his orders fifty lashes; and again whipped him with a cat, which he wound with wire, about the same number of stripes; […] he used this cat on one other man, and then destroyed the cat wound with wire.

5. (archaic) A sturdy merchant sailing vessel (now only in «catboat»).
6. (archaic, uncountable) The game of trap ball.
   1. (archaic, countable) The trap in that game.
7. (archaic) The pointed piece of wood that is struck in the game of tipcat.
8. (slang, vulgar, African-American Vernacular) A vagina, a vulva; the female external genitalia.

   • 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Holloway House Publishing:

     «What the hell, so this broad’s got a prematurely-gray cat.»

   • 2005, Carolyn Chambers Sanders, Sins & Secrets, Hachette Digital:

     As she came up, she tried to put her cat in his face for some licking.

   • 2007, Franklin White, Money for Good, Simon and Schuster, page 64:

     I had a notion to walk over to her, rip her apron off, sling her housecoat open and put my finger inside her cat to see if she was wet or freshly fucked because the dream I had earlier was beginning to really annoy me.

9. A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.) with six feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever position it is placed.
11. (historical) A wheeled shelter, used in the Middle Ages as a siege weapon to allow assailants to approach enemy defences.

    Synonyms: tortoise, Welsh cat

    • 2000, Stephen O’Shea, The Perfect Heresy, Profile Books, page 97:

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

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

1. (nautical, transitive) To hoist (the anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.
   • 1922, Francis Lynde, Pirates’ Hope, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, page 226:

     The anchors were catted at the bows of the yacht …

2. (nautical, transitive) To flog with a cat-o’-nine-tails.
3. (slang) To vomit.
4. To go wandering at night.

   • 1998, Mary Spencer, Lady’s Wager, page 324:

     «He doesn’t realize that I know,» Lord Callan said, «but it’s been pretty obvious that most of his catting about London’s darker alleys has been a search for his origins.

   • 2010, Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, page 18:

     This was going to be my first try at catting out. I went looking for somebody to cat with me.

   • 2012, Valerie Hansen, Wages of Sin:

     My own dear wife could have tended to his needs if she hadn’t been out catting.

5. To gossip in a catty manner.

   • 1932, Hugh Brooke, Man Made Angry, page 134:

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

   • 1996, Alistair Boyle, The Unlucky Seven:

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

   • 2016, Melanie Benjamin, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, page 293:

     In the story, Lady Ina gossiped and catted about a parade of the rich and famous—Jackie Kennedy looking like an exaggerated version of herself, Princess Margaret so boring she made people fall asleep, Gloria Vanderbilt so ditzy she didn’t recognize her first husband.

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From concatenate, derived from the program’s function of concatenating files. Compare concat.

Noun[edit]

cat (plural cats)

1. (computing) A program and command in Unix that reads one or more files and directs their content to the standard output.

Verb[edit]

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

1. (computing, transitive) To apply the cat command to (one or more files).
2. (computing, slang) To dump large amounts of data on (an unprepared target), usually with no intention of browsing it carefully.

Etymology 3[edit]

Abbreviations.

Noun[edit]

cat (plural cats)

1. (slang) A street name of the drug methcathinone.
2. Abbreviation of catapult.

   a carrier’s bow cats

3. Abbreviation of catalytic converter.
4. Abbreviation of catamaran.
5. Abbreviation of category.
6. Abbreviation of catfish.

   • 1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!:

     She missed the fish diet of her own country, and twice every summer she sent the boys to the river, twenty miles to the southward, to fish for channel cat.

   • 1916, M. Shults, «Fishing for Yellow Cat in the Brazos», in Field and Stream, vol. 21, 478.

     Fishing for cat is probably, up to a certain stage, the least exciting of all similar sports.

7. Abbreviation of caterpillar.
   1. (slang) Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)
   2. A ground vehicle which uses caterpillar tracks, especially tractors, trucks, minibuses, and snow groomers.
8. Abbreviation of computed axial tomography. Often used attributively, as in “CAT scan” or “CT scan”.

Adjective[edit]

cat (not comparable)

2. (Ireland, colloquial) Catastrophic; terrible, disastrous.

   The weather was cat, so they returned home early.

Derived terms[edit]

• cat melodeon

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

• A. C. T., A.C.T., ACT, ATC, Act., CTA, TAC, TCA, act, act., tac

Indonesian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Malay cat, from Min Nan 漆 (chhat).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃat̚]
• Hyphenation: cat

Noun[edit]

cat (first-person possessive catku, second-person possessive catmu, third-person possessive catnya)

1. paint (substance)

Affixed terms[edit]

Compounds[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “cat” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Irish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• cut (Cois Fharraige)

Etymology[edit]

From Old Irish catt, from Latin cattus.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Munster, Aran) IPA^(key): /kɑt̪ˠ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /kat̪ˠ/
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /kʊt̪ˠ/ (as if spelled cut)

Noun[edit]

cat m (genitive singular cait, nominative plural cait)

1. cat (domestic feline; member of the Felidae)

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cat	chat	gcat
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading[edit]

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “cat”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904), “cat”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 121
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “catt”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Entries containing “cat” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “cat” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

Malay[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Min Nan 漆 (chhat).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃat/
• Rhymes: -t͡ʃat, -at

Noun[edit]

cat (Jawi spelling چت‎, informal 1st possessive catku, 2nd possessive catmu, 3rd possessive catnya)

1. paint (substance)

Affixed terms[edit]

• bercat
• mengecat (active): to paint
  • dicat (passive): to be painted
• catan: painting (an artwork in the form of a painted picture)
• pengecatan: the action of applying paint to something (e.g. a surface, etc.)
• pengecat: painter (a person whose job is paining buildings)

Further reading[edit]

• “cat” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• catte

Etymology[edit]

From Old English catt, catte; this is in turn from Proto-Germanic *kattuz.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /kat/

Noun[edit]

cat (plural cattes)

1. cat (feline)

Synonyms[edit]

• badde

Descendants[edit]

• English: cat
• Scots: cat
• Yola: kaudès, kauddès (plural)

References[edit]

• “cat, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norman[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Northern French cat (variant of Old French chat) from Late Latin cattus.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ka/

Noun[edit]

cat m (plural cats, feminine catte)

1. cat
   • c. 1830, George Métivier, ‘Lamentations de Damaris’:

     Où’est donc qu’j’iron, mé et mes puches / Ma catte, et l’reste de l’écu?

   • 2006, Peggy Collenette, ‘D’la gâche de Guernési’, P’tites Lures Guernésiaises, Cromwell Press 2006, page 20:

     Ils d’visirent pour enne haeure, mais la Louise était pas chagrinaïe au tour sa pâte, pasqué a savait que le cat était à gardaïr la pâte caoude. (They talked for an hour, but Louise was not worried about her dough, because she knew that the cat was keeping the dough warm.)

2. (Jersey) common dab (Limanda limanda)

Derived terms[edit]

• catchiéthe (“cat-flap”)

Old French[edit]

Noun[edit]

cat m (oblique plural caz or catz, nominative singular caz or catz, nominative plural cat)

1. (Picardy, Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of chat

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قات‎ (kat).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /kat/
• Rhymes: -at

Noun[edit]

cat n (plural caturi)

1. (dated) floor (storey)
   • 1892, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Mr. Vucea:

     Mi-aduc bine aminte că unul sărea de la al cincilea cat, și c-o mână își ținea pălăria. Grozav îi era de pălărie!

     I remember well that one was jumping from the fifth floor, and was holding his hat with one hand. That proud was he of the hat!

Declension[edit]

Scottish Gaelic[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Irish catt, borrowed from Late Latin cattus. Cognates include Irish cat and Manx kayt.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /kʰaʰt̪/
• Hyphenation: cat

Noun[edit]

cat m (genitive singular cait, plural cait)

1. cat (Felis catus)

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
cat	chat
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References[edit]

• Colin Mark (2003), “cat”, in The Gaelic-English dictionary, London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 118

Значение cat значение

Что в английском языке означает cat?

Перевод cat перевод

Как перевести с английского cat?

Синонимы cat синонимы

Как по-другому сказать cat по-английски?

Примеры cat примеры

Как в английском употребляется cat?

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).