cat and dogn.
1. (Usually as cat-and-dog.) Referring to the proverbial enmity between the two animals: attributive. Full of strife; inharmonious; quarrelsome.
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society > society and the community > dissent > quarrel or quarrelling > [noun] > quarrelsomeness > typical example of
cat and doga1745
society > society and the community > dissent > quarrel or quarrelling > [adjective]
cat and dog1821
cat-and-doggish1878
1579 S. Gosson Schoole of Abuse f. 9v He..shall see them agree like dogges and cattes.
a1745 J. Swift Phyllis in Poems (1937) I. 225 They keep at Staines the old Blue Boar, Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore.
1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. ii. 35 Married he was..and a cat-and-dog life she led with Tony.
1822 W. Cobbett Rural Rides in Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 19 Jan. 186 The fast-sinking Old Times news-paper, its cat-and-dog opponent the New Times.
1867 A. Trollope Last Chron. Barset I. xliii. 384 They..were gracious..and abstained from all cat-and-dog absurdities.
2. to rain cats and dogs: to rain very heavily. Also attributive, raining heavily. Similarly to blow (also pour) cats and dogs.
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the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > rain > rain falls [verb (intransitive)] > rain heavily
ropec1450
to ding down1554
to come down1597
to ding onc1650
to rain cats and dogs1661
sile1703
pour1737
teem1753
pepper1767
flood1813
to rain pitchforks1815
rash1824
spate1853
bucket1926
tipplea1930
piss1948
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > wet weather > [adjective] > wet (of weather, place, or time) > rainy > very
pouring1577
to rain cats and dogs1849
torrential1849
a1652 R. Brome City Wit iv. i. sig. D7v, in Five New Playes (1653) It shall raine..Dogs and Polecats.]
1661 T. Flatman Don Juan Lamberto (new ed.) ii. iv. sig. L Here we have Houses over our heads, so that if it should rain Dogs and Cats we could have no harm.
1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 178 I know Sir John will go, tho' he was sure it would rain Cats and Dogs.
1766 P. Thicknesse Observ. Customs Fr. Nation 106 It blows cats and dogs, as the sailors say.
1819 P. B. Shelley Let. 25 Feb. (1964) II. 78 It began raining cats & dogs.
1848 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 292 It blew great guns and poured cats and dogs.
1849 W. M. Thackeray in Scribner's Mag. 1 551/1 Pouring with rain..and the most dismal..cat and dog day.
1949 A. Wilson Wrong Set 188 It always ‘rained cats and dogs’.
1997 Brainwaves Catal. (Innovations Plc) Christmas 24/1 When it's raining cats and dogs—this umbrella says it all!
3. A game played with a piece of wood called a cat (cf. cat n.1 10a) and a club called a dog.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > tip-cat > [noun]
cat's-pellet1609
trippet1624
cat1626
kit-cat1665
cat's-play1668
tipcat1801
cat and dog1808
piggy1862
piggy-and-stick1932
kennetjie1947
1808 in J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang.
1884 Public Opinion 5 Sept. 301/2 Cat and dog is in one sense a classical game. Bunyan tells us that he was playing at it.
Derivatives
cat-and-doggish adj.
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society > society and the community > dissent > quarrel or quarrelling > [adjective]
cat and dog1821
cat-and-doggish1878
1878 Cornhill Mag. XXXVIII. 648 To live under the same roof, a cat-and-doggish life.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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n.1579