noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cow/cat etc swishes its tail (= quickly moves it from side to side )
▪
The cow wandered off, swishing her tail.
a pet dog/cat/rabbit etc
▪
I used to have a pet rabbit when I was young.
alley cat
big cat
cat burglar
cat flap
cat litter
cat suit
cat's cradle
▪
The searchlights wove a cat’s cradle of light.
cat's paw
city/cat/night etc person (= someone who likes a particular kind of thing )
▪
I’m not a morning person.
it is raining cats and dogs informal (= it is raining very hard – this phrase sounds rather old-fashioned )
Manx cat
mother cat/bird/hen etc (= an animal that is a mother )
Persian cat
Siamese cat
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪
Persian Leopard Of all the big cats the leopard is the most adaptable.
▪
She thinks the big cats are her fears about life with her husband, and life without him, too.
▪
The tiger is without doubt the most awesome and magnificent of the big cats .
▪
But the biggest damn cat ! just walking around.
▪
A poster for the local paper on the wall next to the newsagent claims boldly that another big cat has been seen.
▪
And rats as big as cats !
▪
In fact he reminded me of a cat , a very big cat, slow and smooth and self-contained.
black
▪
Why does a black cat bring good luck?
▪
There is always a black cat in the yard too I never go near it though.
▪
Max is a jazz musician, a black cat with Negro features, who owns a talking saxophone, his Alto Ego.
▪
Not even a sinister black cat , but a large and lazy-looking tabby.
▪
From atop one pile on the desk under the window, a very fat long-haired black cat gazed impassively at Agnes.
▪
I am so dark that a black cat looks illuminated to me.
▪
In the hall they found Mr Hunter again, holding a slack bored-looking black cat .
▪
Crouching low by the wall of the stables was a black cat , eating a bird whose wings were still twitching.
domestic
▪
After all, they're treated in rather the same disgraceful way as domestic cats .
▪
Loss of beachfront habitat and predation by domestic cats and introduced red foxes pushed the least tern to the brink of extinction.
▪
These are the seven most important sound messages made by domestic cats .
▪
The wild ancestors of our domestic cats liked to eat freshly killed prey - they were not scavengers.
▪
As indeed is the lion, the otter or the domestic cat when they are out a-hunting.
▪
This short gestation means that, like the kittens of a domestic cat , the cubs are born blind and helpless.
▪
This snake-mimicry is employed by many species, from the familiar domestic cat to less familiar finches.
▪
The explanation is that the domestic cat uses two vocabularies at once.
fat
▪
From atop one pile on the desk under the window, a very fat long-haired black cat gazed impassively at Agnes.
▪
And we are easy targets. Fat cats are rare and easy to spot.
▪
And far from silently resenting the city fat cats , they believe top businessmen deserve success.
▪
Teacher: Are there more fat cats than thin cats?
▪
A fat white cat sat on a wall and watched them with sleepy eyes.
▪
The painting, with the two fat cats at the base of the steps, was thought to be by her.
little
▪
Her own eyes were a muddy green, and just now they were spitting fire, like a little cat .
▪
I saw the little cat first.
pet
▪
Now they are campaigning to be allowed to take their pet cat with them.
▪
It was only as my sister reopened the front door to let out her pet cat that I was noticed.
▪
A Glaxo unit bought the formula to use on pet cats .
▪
Some cat manuals solemnly instruct their readers in how to take their pet cats for a walk.
▪
The village cat owner sets off from home and finds the pet cat tagging along.
▪
Her parents were alerted by their pet cats and the family escaped unharmed.
▪
It was purring, like a pet cat .
▪
This acoustic ability of pet cats explains why they sometimes appear to have supernatural powers.
siamese
▪
Sometimes a Siamese cat will develop pale colouring on its points without any local injury.
▪
A very superior Siamese cat eyes her from a low windowsill, its sapphire eyes, cold and searching.
▪
A Siamese cat picks its way among the confusion of London Library volumes lying open on the table.
▪
He was not to be persuaded that they were merely Siamese cats gone horribly wrong.
▪
Oriental cats in general seem to be more likely to indulge - and Siamese cats in particular.
stray
▪
The world is full of stray cats , many of them searching hopefully for a new home.
▪
I was merely about to fire a blank to frighten off some stray cats .
▪
A tribe of stray cats scattered as I turned into the yard where Ellen's apartment lay.
▪
A dozen stray cats were asleep under a Con Edison awning and so were two winos.
▪
By next morning some stray cat had eaten much of his back, so all I could do was measure him.
▪
Beneath the stage a stray ginger cat climbs on huge pieces of outdated production machinery from before the second world war.
tabby
▪
She squealed like a tabby cat beneath the lecherous neighbourhood tom.
▪
A large, tabby cat came in, sniffed round his shoes then jumped up on his lap.
▪
For some reason we do not fully understand, the blotched tabby cat was a winner.
▪
What is the history of the tabby cat ?
true
▪
Snow leopards have the distinction of being the only true big cat of the mountains.
▪
A true cat abhors a closed door.
▪
The true cats of the genus Felis have a different attachment of the larynx that robs them of this ability.
▪
When caught misbehaving a true cat pretends he was doing something else.
▪
If the cap had been spooked by our presence could the same be true of the cats ?
▪
A true cat always comes between you and your newspaper.
▪
It is true that all cats share many features of their behaviour, down to the tiniest detail.
▪
A true cat knows his name but will never acknowledge it.
white
▪
Sometimes a white cat is born with one blue eye and one orange eye.
▪
It is just one in a series of books about her white cat , Violet, who also lives on Wistoria Lane.
▪
A white cat and the marmalade and white lay curled up side by side in an armchair.
▪
Owners of deaf white cats report that their pets are brilliant at compensating for their genetic disability.
▪
His black and white cat surveyed the world contentedly from the doorstep.
▪
A white cat , like an albino human or white whale, has a biochemical quirk.
▪
A fat white cat sat on a wall and watched them with sleepy eyes.
▪
It is the blue-eyed white cats that are most prone to deafness.
wild
▪
They start to refine their miaows in a way that wild cats never seem to do.
▪
A wild cat passes near, somebody spots a yak, there is talk of a new plague of wolves.
▪
Of the three types of general body fur on the wild cat , the down hairs are the most numerous.
▪
Just then two big wild cats came down to the shore from the mountains.
▪
Instead, she began to light like a wild cat .
▪
There is wildlife here in abundance; deer, wild cats , red squirrels, golden eagles, ospreys and reindeer.
▪
The people were afraid of these wild cats , and the women cried out.
▪
The second wild cat ran back up into the mountains.
■ NOUN
burglar
▪
Although he was to become Britain's most successful cat burglar , Peace showed no early aptitude, and was frequently arrested.
▪
Actually, Rutledge is a thief who employs his abused, trained ape Dunston as a simian cat burglar .
▪
We are softly up the stairs and into our room with less noise than a pair of cat burglars .
▪
Next,'s friends and colleagues dressed up as cat burglars and prowled around Telford town centre collecting money for Comic Relief.
▪
Auguste flashed around busily, trying to reconcile these people with Rose's cat burglar .
▪
Even Rose had no proof that the cat burglar was in Cannes.
food
▪
Indeed if you include our exports, we are the largest manufacturer of dried cat food in the country.
▪
The walls and ceilings were black, and the sole illumination was provided by black candles set in empty cat food cans.
▪
Most of them looked as if they had been moulded in empty cat food tins.
▪
She used to give them Pedigree Chum too, but it was mostly cat food .
▪
This is sold, alongside Omega cat food , through specialist outlets such as pet shops, garden centres and agricultural merchants.
▪
Marie bought loads of cat food before she left, so there's plenty for him.
▪
Our private label business in the supermarkets continues to grow with our cat food products selling extremely well in the major multiples.
▪
This predominance of cans is a correct impression of the country's cat food market.
litter
▪
You can use a large plastic cat litter tray as a dirt-box.
▪
Fill this with a small amount of cat litter , having lined it first with newspaper.
■ VERB
eat
▪
They eat cinders, dead cats .
▪
Being poor and hungry, the son decided to eat the cat .
feed
▪
The next time you feed your cat , take a close look at its eyes.
▪
Now recliners do everything but feed the cat .
▪
And the money she earned from the deal went towards feeding her own cats .
▪
They let her come round and tell me, so I could feed the cat if she's not back.
▪
It was getting more and more difficult to feed the cat - and to feed himself.
▪
She ought to feed the cat - and then there was the washing.
▪
They were destined to feed his cat .
▪
Ninety-five percent of our cats are fed a canned cat food, the others eating scraps or whatever they can catch!
fight
▪
When they tossed the used rag of my body from the railings, I fought like a cat but only ice-water listened.
keep
▪
Use to remove them from-areas. ò Keep cats away with bottles half filled with water around the garden.
▪
Several who tried keeping the cats reported delightedly that this was the case.
▪
He was sentenced to 6 months in imprisonment and banned for life from keeping cats .
▪
Of course, good help is hard to keep with cats , owls and actors all over the place.
kill
▪
That stuff they're giving you would kill a dozen cats .
▪
I killed my cat when I was six.
▪
Nour hadn't killed the cat .
▪
There's more than one way to kill a cat ....
▪
An assessment was made of the numbers and species of animals caught and killed by cats in and around this particular village.
▪
I didn't know any more than you, but curiosity was killing this cat , and I wanted their measurements.
▪
If this emission takes place it triggers the breaking of a vial of poison gas which instantaneously kills the cat .
let
▪
Gaily let in the cat , scratching at the door.
▪
It was only as my sister reopened the front door to let out her pet cat that I was noticed.
▪
Inadvertently perhaps, the BiE report lets the cat out of the bag.
play
▪
For the rest of the hunting season, the saboteurs will play a cat and mouse game with the huntsmen.
▪
You don't have to play these cat and mouse games with your clockwork soldiers.
▪
By the looks of them, they had been playing whilst the cat was away.
▪
Tucked away from spewing traffic, quiet old city streets filled are with playing children and cats .
▪
Bail arm over, wind down, strike and Rick was soon playing out another cat towards the waiting net.
▪
They played cat and mouse with the Bay, now scrambling for the outside, now sneaking back in.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Cat got your tongue?
▪
What's happened to all your brains, Frankie boy? Cat got your tongue ?
calico cat
curiosity killed the cat
▪
The townspeople had learned the hard way that curiosity killed the cat - you stayed indoors if there was trouble.
dogs'/cats' home
fat cat
▪
They do not resent the city fat cats, but believe top businessmen deserve success.
▪
Why should those fat cats get rich through our efforts?
▪
And far from silently resenting the city fat cats, they believe top businessmen deserve success.
▪
Teacher: Are there more fat cats than thin cats?
▪
The painting, with the two fat cats at the base of the steps, was thought to be by her.
▪
Too often they are viewed as' ambulance-chasing fat cats'.
fight like cat and dog
sth is like herding cats
there's more than one way to skin a cat
there's not enough room to swing a cat
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
That Jefferson is one cool cat .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Mr Cruitt says ad spending will triple this year, when the company will begin promoting the cat version of the drug.
▪
No one was about except a black and white cat asleep in the sun.
▪
She travelled in a chariot drawn by cats, the latter being her sacred animal symbol and familiars.
▪
The next day Richard got a cat .
▪
Two cats add to the homely feel, as does the lively Caps Restaurant and Bar.
▪
What falling ill means to a cat , or any other animal, is that something unpleasant is threatening it.