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Cat Very Common

Cat has 27 different meanings across 3 categories:

Noun · Verb · Proper Noun

Definitions
Noun
1

feline mammal usually having thick soft fur and no ability to roar: domestic cats; wildcats

"The fluffy cat jumped onto the windowsill to watch the birds outside."

2

an informal term for a youth or man

"a nice guy"

"the guy's only doing it for some doll"

"the poor sod couldn't even buy a drink"

3

a spiteful woman gossip

"what a cat she is!"

cat
4

the leaves of the shrub Catha edulis which are chewed like tobacco or used to make tea; has the effect of a euphoric stimulant

"in Yemen kat is used daily by 85% of adults"

5

a whip with nine knotted cords

"British sailors feared the cat"

6

a large tracked vehicle that is propelled by two endless metal belts; frequently used for moving earth in construction and farm work

"The heavy cat dug through the muddy field to clear a path for the new barn."

7

any of several large cats typically able to roar and living in the wild

"The lion, tiger, leopard, and jaguar are all examples of big cat species that roam the African and Asian wilderness."

8

a method of examining body organs by scanning them with X rays and using a computer to construct a series of cross-sectional scans along a single axis

"The doctor ordered a cat scan to get detailed images of the internal injuries after the car accident."

9

An animal of the family Felidae:

"The instructor explained that the final exam would be a CAT, so students needed to be prepared for questions adapting in real time based on their previous answers."

10

A domesticated species (Felis catus) or subspecies (Felis silvestris catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet.

11

Abbreviation of catamaran.

12

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

13

A street name of the drug methcathinone.

14

A catapult.

15

Abbreviation of category.

16

Abbreviation of catfish.

17

Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)

18

A piece of heavy machinery, such as a backhoe, of the Caterpillar brand.

19

A Catalina flying boat.

20

Acronym of computer-adaptive test.

In plain English: A cat is a small domestic animal with soft fur, sharp claws, and a long tail that people often keep as pets.

"The cat jumped onto the windowsill to watch the birds outside."

Usage: Use "cat" to refer to any small domesticated feline animal that hunts mice and often purrs. Do not use it as an abbreviation for a computer-adaptive test unless you are specifically discussing educational technology contexts.

Verb
1

beat with a cat-o'-nine-tails

"The captain ordered the mutineers to be beaten with a cat-o'-nine-tails as punishment for their treason."

cat
2

eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

"After drinking too much, the students vomited"

"He purged continuously"

"The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night"

3

To hoist (the anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.

"I used the cat command to display the entire contents of my configuration file on the terminal screen."

4

To apply the cat command to (one or more files).

In plain English: To cat means to move quickly and stealthily, usually while crouching low to the ground.

"He decided to cat the dog out from under the sofa."

Usage: Use "cat" only in technical computing contexts to mean reading and displaying the contents of a file directly into your terminal. In everyday conversation, this word refers exclusively to the domestic feline animal.

Adjective
1

Terrible, disastrous.

"The cat show was a total disaster when every single feline refused to walk on the stage."

In plain English: Cat (adj: Terrible, disastrous.) Plain English Definition: Cat means really awful or completely ruined.

"The cat food bowl was full."

Usage: The adjective form of "cat" is not standard English and should be avoided in formal writing. Instead of using it to mean terrible or disastrous, choose clear alternatives like "catastrophic" or "disastrous."

Proper Noun
1

A diminutive of the female given names Catherine or Caitlin.

"The cat was hosting a workshop on sustainable energy solutions this weekend."

2

Centre for Alternative Technology

Example Sentences
"The cat food bowl was full." adj
"The cat jumped onto the windowsill to watch the birds outside." noun
"He decided to cat the dog out from under the sofa." verb
See Also
feline animal pet kitten dog meow house cats
Related Terms
feline animal pet kitten dog meow house cats mexican hairless kitty flea leopard nine lives feline animal domestic house pet tabby furry mammal tiger
Antonyms
keep down
Broader Terms (hypernyms)
feline man gossip woman stimulant whip tracked vehicle X-raying flog excrete
Narrower Terms (hyponyms)
domestic cat wildcat leopard snow leopard jaguar lion tiger liger tiglon cheetah saber-toothed tiger

Origin

The word "cat" comes from Old English, where it originally referred specifically to either a male or female feline. It traveled into English through Middle English and is generally thought to have originated from Late Latin cattus, though its ultimate roots may lie in an Afroasiatic language.

Rhyming Words
scat mcat ducat bocat lolcat rescat tomcat eiscat hepcat noncat bobcat avocat mudcat mercat ocicat bowcat fatcat podcat tipcat kitcat
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