cat

A small domesticated animal with soft fur, white, black, gray, colored, stripped or multi-colored, which is a household or barnyard pet, any of the carnivorous mammals related to the household cat, such as lion, tiger, leopard, or puma: a sharp-tongued or gossip-peddling woman; a whip, otherwise known as a cat-o-nine tails. Slang for a caterpillar tractor. Teenage slang for a clever person. In the slang of an older day, a woman who makes trouble. A cat is a domestic animal which if kept as a household pet is a thing of value which ministers to the pleasure of its owner. As such it is the proper subject of a civil action, such as trover; it is prop- erty subject to taxation and is such an animal as is included in statutes against cruelty, although it was not the subject of larceny at common law. Thurston v Carter, 112 Me 361, 92 A 295.