Feb 3, 2015 · CHESHIRE CAT, s.—"To grin like a Cheshire cat" is a very old saying, and like many old sayings, the origin is doubtful. Another version is "to grin like a Cheshire cat chewing gravel:" In the Dictionary of Modern Slang is the following: "'To grin like a Cheshire cat' is to display the teeth and gums whilst laughing (à la Tim Bobbin ...

Jan 24, 2024 · When someone is grinning at you while cutting you down. A snide comment is the best I have found. Or cheshire cat grin. There has to be a better word for this common occurrence.

It still has the negative connotation of "shit-eating grin", but is suitable for polite company. A related idiom is that one can look like the cat that got the cream: if someone looks like the cat that got the cream, they annoy other people by looking very pleased with themselves because of something good that they have done

Mar 6, 2021 · If "shit-eating grin" emerged as G.I. slang during World War II and first appeared in print in the bowdlerized form "shingle-eating grin" in U.S. military publications, the two examples of "shingle-eating grin" cited above from 1949 and 1950 are highly relevant.

Sep 6, 2011 · "If you should give such language at sea, you'd have a cat-o'-nine-tails laid cross your shoulders." If those dates are in fact the earliest uses then the 'cat o' nine tails' theory is wrong. However, as the post says, there is a possibility that this explanation is not true, if the cat-o'-nine-tails was invented after the phrase was invented.

Mar 16, 2014 · a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. grin like a Cheshire cat, to smile or grin inscrutably. and its proverbial grin attested from 1770, of unknown origin. A cat with an enormous grin encountered by Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

The original phrase was "no more chance than a cat in hell without claws" (with variation) and (taking a different tack and searching for "hell without claws" rather than "cat in hell" turns up some with a few mis-scanned "cat") I can find no earlier occurrence than the 1759 The life and real adventures of Hamilton Murray, written by himself ...

Apr 28, 2012 · The phrase is frequently said to have originated in the words of a song, but although many songs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries feature a person called Riley or Reilly, none has been identified as furnishing a clear source for the exact phrase.

Jul 6, 2017 · Why does a Cheshire cat grin, and how long has it been doing so? 2 "it's a long time that.' 6.

Apr 16, 2018 · It is said that a cat has nine lives, but care would wear them all out. According to Wikipedia (which I'm always skeptical of, but in this case provides external references for its claim): On 10 August 1905, The Galveston Daily News newspaper (page 6) printed the following quotation without the word satisfaction: Curiosity killed a cat; but it ...