"catbird seat" meaning in English

See catbird seat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-catbird seat.ogg Forms: catbird seats [plural]
Etymology: The expression may originate in regard to the gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), as it was in use in the 19th century in the southern United States. It was featured in the 1942 short story "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber, and popularized by baseball commentator Red Barber, and often referred to baseball. The expression, according to James Thurber, comes from the observation of the catbird (an Australian bird) of the family Ptilonorhynchidae. Some of the male birds will assemble several hundred colored rocks or shells, arranging them in a remarkable artistic display, in order to build a "seat" atop which his mate will eventually be enthroned. Etymology templates: {{vern|gray catbird}} gray catbird, {{taxlink|Dumetella carolinensis|species}} Dumetella carolinensis, {{taxfmt|Ptilonorhynchidae|family}} Ptilonorhynchidae Head templates: {{en-noun}} catbird seat (plural catbird seats)
  1. (US, idiomatic) An enviable position, often one of great advantage. Wikipedia link: James Thurber, Red Barber Tags: US, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-catbird_seat-en-noun-GznX3hDj Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gray catbird"
      },
      "expansion": "gray catbird",
      "name": "vern"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "Dumetella carolinensis",
        "2": "species"
      },
      "expansion": "Dumetella carolinensis",
      "name": "taxlink"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "Ptilonorhynchidae",
        "2": "family"
      },
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      "name": "taxfmt"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The expression may originate in regard to the gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), as it was in use in the 19th century in the southern United States. It was featured in the 1942 short story \"The Catbird Seat\" by James Thurber, and popularized by baseball commentator Red Barber, and often referred to baseball. The expression, according to James Thurber, comes from the observation of the catbird (an Australian bird) of the family Ptilonorhynchidae. Some of the male birds will assemble several hundred colored rocks or shells, arranging them in a remarkable artistic display, in order to build a \"seat\" atop which his mate will eventually be enthroned.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catbird seats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "catbird seat (plural catbird seats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "parents": [],
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "With a big victory in the primary, he was sitting in the catbird seat.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An enviable position, often one of great advantage."
      ],
      "id": "en-catbird_seat-en-noun-GznX3hDj",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) An enviable position, often one of great advantage."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "James Thurber",
        "Red Barber"
      ]
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{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "1": "gray catbird"
      },
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      "name": "vern"
    },
    {
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        "2": "species"
      },
      "expansion": "Dumetella carolinensis",
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      "args": {
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catbird seats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "catbird seat (plural catbird seats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries missing English vernacular names of taxa",
        "Entries using missing taxonomic name (species)",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "With a big victory in the primary, he was sitting in the catbird seat.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An enviable position, often one of great advantage."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) An enviable position, often one of great advantage."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "James Thurber",
        "Red Barber"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/fa/En-au-catbird_seat.ogg/En-au-catbird_seat.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/En-au-catbird_seat.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "catbird seat"
}

Download raw JSONL data for catbird seat meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). 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.