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Cheshire Cat

Definition: Cheshire Cat

Cheshire Cat

Noun

1. A fictional cat with a broad fixed smile on its face; created by Lewis Carroll.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 


Specialty Definition: Cheshire Cat

DomainDefinition

Slang in 1811

CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of anyone who shews his teeth and gums in laughing. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Cheshire Cat

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

For the fictional cat, see: Cheshire cat

Cheshire Cat is a pop-punk album by blink-182 that was released in 1995 (see 1995 in music).

  1. "Carousel"
  2. "M+M's"
  3. "Fentoozler"
  4. "Touchdown Boy"
  5. "Strings"
  6. "Peggy Sue"
  7. "Sometimes"
  8. "Does My Breath Smell?"
  9. "Cacophony"
  10. "T.V."
  11. "Toast & Bananas"
  12. "Wasting Time"
  13. "Romeo & Rebecca"
  14. "Ben Wah Balls"
  15. "Just About Done"
  16. "Depends"

Older recordings of "Toast & Bananas", "Carousel", "T.V.", "Strings", "Sometimes", "Fentoozler" and "Romeo & Rebecca" are on Buddha.



Cheshire cat

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat appearing in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. It appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation. The cat often points out philosophical points that annoy Alice.

At one point, the cat disappeared gradually until nothing was left but its grin, prompting Alice to remark that she had often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.

"Please, would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly, ... "why your cat grins like that?"
"It's a Cheshire cat," said the Duchess, "and that's why."

The cat also uses logic to offer non-solutions to Alice's question:
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Another example of this annoying practice is presented when Alice asks for directions:
"...thought Alice, and she went on. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

There are reports that Carroll found inspiration for the Cheshire Cat in a carving in a church in the village of Croft in the unitary authority of Warrington in the north west of England, where his father had been rector. The cat is named after Caroll's home county, Cheshire.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says grinning like a Cheshire cat is "an old simile, popularized by Lewis Carrol". Brewer adds, "The phrase has never been satisfactorily accounted for, but it has been said that cheese was formerly sold in Cheshire moulded like a cat that looked as though it was grinning."

External link

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Cheshire Cat."

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Synonyms within Context: Cheshire Cat

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Amusement

Smile, simper, smirk; grin, grin like a Cheshire cat; mock, laugh in one's sleeve; laugh, laugh outright; giggle, titter, crow, snicker, chuckle, cackle; burst out, burst into a fit of laughter; shout, split, roar.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Cheshire Cat

Specialty definitions using "Cheshire cat": Cat Proverbs. (references)

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Modern Usage: Cheshire Cat

DomainUsage

Lyrics

Smiling like a Cheshire Cat (Rock In A Hard Place (Cheshire Cat); performing artist: Aerosmith)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Expression: Cheshire Cat

Expression using "Cheshire cat": grin like a cheshire cat. Additional references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Cheshire Cat

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

cheshire cat

238

cheshire cat inn

9

alice and the cheshire cat

3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Cheshire Cat

Language Translations for "Cheshire cat"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Turkish

  

sırıtmak (grin, grin at, grin like a cheshire cat, smirk). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

người lúc n o cũng nhăn nhở. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Anagrams: Cheshire Cat

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-c-c-e-e-h-h-i-r-s-t"

-1 letter: hatcheries, thearchies.

-3 letters: accretes, aetheric, catchers, catchier, chariest, cheaters, cheetahs, chestier, cratches, etherish, hatchers, hearties, heathers, heathier, hectares, heretics, hetaeric, hitchers, recheats, seecatch, sheather, teachers, theriacs.

-4 letters: accrete, achiest, aeriest, aethers, aitches, arctics, ascetic, cachets, cahiers, carices, cashier, catcher, catches, cerates, cerites, chaster, cheater, cheetah, cherish, chetahs, chicest, cithers, creates, creches, cretics, cristae.

 Words containing the letters "a-c-c-e-e-h-h-i-r-s-t"
 

+5 letters: mechanochemistry.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Usage: Modern
4. Expressions
5. Expressions: Internet
6. Translations: Modern
7. Anagrams
8. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.