cater-corneredadv.adj.

1838 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches 196 One of that class..who, when compelled to share their bed with another, lie in that engrossing posture called ‘catty-cornered’.

1841 ‘Dow, Jr.’ Short Patent Serm. xxi. 52 Unless you..took too many catty-cornered tracks, Making but little headway with the tacks, While calling on the ladies.

1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. xxvii. 261 With directions how..to secure, by two strings diagonally fastened, or as he better understood it—‘katterkorner'd-like’.

1878 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. Cater-cornered, diagonal. A house standing diagonally to the street would be cater-cornered.

1881 S. Evans Evans's Leicestershire Words (new ed.) Cater and Cater-cornered, diagonal; diagonally. To ‘cut cater’ in the case of velvet, cloth, etc., is..‘cut on the cross’. Cater-snozzle, to make an angle; to ‘mitre’.

1882 S. Hale Lett. 135 One, a big salon of a catty-cornered description, with windows looking all sorts of ways.

1893 Harper's Mag. June 112/1 He leaned against the wall, eying me catacornered, but innocent.

1902 S. E. White Blazed Trail vii. 53 When the log had been cat-a-cornered from its bed, the chain was fastened [etc.].

1906 Harper's Mag. July 252 ‘You do leave things so catacornered,’ Martha observed.

1919 F. Hurst Humoresque 86 The optical department, cater~corner from the children's shoes.

1945 J. Steinbeck Cannery Row i. 4 If you walk catty-cornered across the grass-grown lot.

1945 J. Steinbeck Cannery Row v. 16 Lee Chongs's grocery was on its catty-corner right and Dora's Bear Flag Restaurant was on its catty-corner left.

1957 New Yorker 29 June 22/1 There was a girl sitting down one row, catty-corner from me.

1959 Listener 22 Jan. 174/2 A square cat, going cater-cornered among the leeks.

1962 R. Deming Careful Man ii. 21 She took a catty-corner shortcut.

1964 New Yorker 21 Nov. 222/2 Temple Square..is catercorner to the site of the Kennecott Copper Corporation's new eighteen-story building.

a1854 ‘Dow, Jr.’ Patent Serm. IV. 79 All the cris-crossings, meanderings, trianglings, and catty-cornerings [of a dance].

1885 Cent. Mag. Nov. 64/1 He just takes them records..and brings his side line down catercornerin'—that way.

1888 J. Kirkland McVeys 59 Now, suppose the railroad runs diagonally across a field, ‘cater-cornering’, as he says.