care killed the cat in English

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{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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      "expansion": "¹",
      "name": "sup"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the statement that care will kill anyone, even though they had, like the proverbial cat, nine lives.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "care killed a cat",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
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    }
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      "expansion": "care killed the cat",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
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      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of curiosity killed the cat."
      ],
      "id": "en-care_killed_the_cat-en-proverb-DrIk1cT8",
      "links": [
        [
          "curiosity killed the cat",
          "curiosity killed the cat#English"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) Synonym of curiosity killed the cat."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
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          "word": "curiosity killed the cat"
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      "glosses": [
        "Too much worry is a mental burden."
      ],
      "id": "en-care_killed_the_cat-en-proverb-JfH7aK8L"
    }
  ],
  "word": "care killed the cat"
}

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{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English proverbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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    {
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      "expansion": "¹",
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  "etymology_text": "Referring to the statement that care will kill anyone, even though they had, like the proverbial cat, nine lives.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "care killed a cat",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
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    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
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        "English terms with archaic senses"
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      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of curiosity killed the cat."
      ],
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          "curiosity killed the cat",
          "curiosity killed the cat#English"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) Synonym of curiosity killed the cat."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
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          "tags": [
            "synonym",
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          "word": "curiosity killed the cat"
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      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Too much worry is a mental burden."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "care killed the cat"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). 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.

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"care killed the cat" meaning in English

Proverb

Alternative forms