"cat that ate the canary" meaning in All languages combined

See cat that ate the canary on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: en-au-cat that ate the canary.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|noun}} cat that ate the canary
  1. (idiomatic) A person who appears self-satisfied or smug, especially while concealing something mischievous, prohibited, or private. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): People Synonyms: cat that swallowed the canary
    Sense id: en-cat_that_ate_the_canary-en-noun-IPDlDvW- Disambiguation of People: 72 28 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 68 32 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 70 30 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 75 25
  2. (idiomatic) A person whose appearance and behavior suggest guilt mixed with other qualities, such as satisfaction or feigned nonchalance. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-cat_that_ate_the_canary-en-noun-N-zX~VKB

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for cat that ate the canary meaning in All languages combined (4.0kB)

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      "expansion": "cat that ate the canary",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "68 32",
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "_dis": "75 25",
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          "_dis": "72 28",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
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          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910 April 30, “Cotton Bulls Stand Shock of Deliveries”, in New York Times, page 2",
          "text": "He talked freely and carried the smile of the cat that swallowed the canary.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001 April 25, “Joseph hints at hurt hand”, in cbcsports.ca, Canada, retrieved 2008-08-09",
          "text": "You have to hand it to Curtis Joseph. Not only does he keep pucks out of the net, he keeps secrets too. \"It's taboo,\" said Joseph, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. \"You're not going to get anything.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 February 25, Georgi Davis, “Jeans weather makes a woman do strange things”, in St Petersburg Times, retrieved 2008-08-09",
          "text": "I stood there looking like the cat that ate the canary. . . . But he knows me too well and pondered out loud what I had been up to.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who appears self-satisfied or smug, especially while concealing something mischievous, prohibited, or private."
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      "id": "en-cat_that_ate_the_canary-en-noun-IPDlDvW-",
      "links": [
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          "self-satisfied",
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          "smug",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A person who appears self-satisfied or smug, especially while concealing something mischievous, prohibited, or private."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "60 40",
          "word": "cat that swallowed the canary"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001 February 12, “Daytona 500: Andretti on Italian food, breakfast cereal and going fast”, in CNN/Sports Illustrated, retrieved 2008-08-09",
          "text": "Like the cat that swallowed the canary. Not only do you feel a little bit guilty 'cause you can't stop, but you feel pretty good, too.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 February 24, Lorena Mongelli, Eric Lenkowitz, “Idiot & Dummy: 'Car Fool' Cheater Nailed in HOV Lane”, in New York Post, retrieved 2008-08-09",
          "text": "Daley said that Tietjen, who lives in Middle Island, had the \"cat who ate the canary\" look when he was pulled over. The 32-year-old driver was apologetic, and never tried to dispute the ticket.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person whose appearance and behavior suggest guilt mixed with other qualities, such as satisfaction or feigned nonchalance."
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      "id": "en-cat_that_ate_the_canary-en-noun-N-zX~VKB",
      "links": [
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        [
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        ],
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          "feign",
          "feign"
        ],
        [
          "nonchalance",
          "nonchalance"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A person whose appearance and behavior suggest guilt mixed with other qualities, such as satisfaction or feigned nonchalance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cat that ate the canary.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4b/En-au-cat_that_ate_the_canary.ogg/En-au-cat_that_ate_the_canary.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/En-au-cat_that_ate_the_canary.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
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  "word": "cat that ate the canary"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
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        {
          "ref": "1910 April 30, “Cotton Bulls Stand Shock of Deliveries”, in New York Times, page 2",
          "text": "He talked freely and carried the smile of the cat that swallowed the canary.",
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        },
        {
          "ref": "2001 April 25, “Joseph hints at hurt hand”, in cbcsports.ca, Canada, retrieved 2008-08-09",
          "text": "You have to hand it to Curtis Joseph. Not only does he keep pucks out of the net, he keeps secrets too. \"It's taboo,\" said Joseph, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. \"You're not going to get anything.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2007 February 25, Georgi Davis, “Jeans weather makes a woman do strange things”, in St Petersburg Times, retrieved 2008-08-09",
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          "type": "quotation"
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        "(idiomatic) A person who appears self-satisfied or smug, especially while concealing something mischievous, prohibited, or private."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "ref": "2001 February 12, “Daytona 500: Andretti on Italian food, breakfast cereal and going fast”, in CNN/Sports Illustrated, retrieved 2008-08-09",
          "text": "Like the cat that swallowed the canary. Not only do you feel a little bit guilty 'cause you can't stop, but you feel pretty good, too.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 February 24, Lorena Mongelli, Eric Lenkowitz, “Idiot & Dummy: 'Car Fool' Cheater Nailed in HOV Lane”, in New York Post, retrieved 2008-08-09",
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          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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        "A person whose appearance and behavior suggest guilt mixed with other qualities, such as satisfaction or feigned nonchalance."
      ],
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        "(idiomatic) A person whose appearance and behavior suggest guilt mixed with other qualities, such as satisfaction or feigned nonchalance."
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4b/En-au-cat_that_ate_the_canary.ogg/En-au-cat_that_ate_the_canary.ogg.mp3",
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      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "cat that swallowed the canary"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cat that ate the canary"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.