"cat that ate the canary" meaning in English

See cat that ate the canary in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-cat that ate the canary.ogg
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: 79 21 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 68 32 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 71 29 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 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

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      "expansion": "cat that ate the canary",
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          "ref": "1910 April 30, “Cotton Bulls Stand Shock of Deliveries”, in New York Times, page 2:",
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          "type": "quote"
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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": "quote"
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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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        "(idiomatic) A person who appears self-satisfied or smug, especially while concealing something mischievous, prohibited, or private."
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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.",
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          "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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        "(idiomatic) A person whose appearance and behavior suggest guilt mixed with other qualities, such as satisfaction or feigned nonchalance."
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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": "quote"
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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": "quote"
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          "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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      "word": "cat that swallowed the canary"
    }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.