Hi, I know that the idiom Look what the cat’s dragged in is used to describe a situation when a person has arrived that is considered ugly. My question is what is the origin of this expression? Is it because a cat is likely to drag something into the house that its owner probably doesn’t want like some dirt for example?
Thank you for shedding some light on this question.
Nicole
Hi Nicole,
Good to hear from you again. As far as I know this comes from the habit that cats have of bringing things into the house like for example a dead mouse or rat that they’ve caught. One of my sons went on holiday recently leaving the cat on its own for a few days. It can come and go into the house via a small catflap (a small catsized door) and when they came back they found a dead mouse in their sitting room, apparently the cat’s idea of showing its appreciation for the care and attention they show it.
Alan
Hello Alan. Thank you very much for your speedy reply. You have described the origin of this cat expression very vividly. Still, my question is why we use this idiom to talk about an ugly person?
Best regards
Nicole
Hi Nicole,
I can only imagine that ugly is associated with something unpleasant like the dead mouse or rat that the cat brought in. It’s an expression that suggests that you find the newcomer a very unpleasant person - I’m not so sure that it is always to do wth looking ugly.
The idea of drag suggests another expression associated with somebody looking unpleasant: You look as though you’ve just been dragged through a hedge backwards.
Alan
Alan, thanks again for clarifying the ugly/unpleasant issue. What about this version: Look what the cat’s brought in.
Does the meaning change if you replace drag with bring?
Nicole
Hi Nicole,
Yes, it’s the same. Very often in a slightly jocular way you could say when someone walks into a room: Just look what the cat’s brought in! It has a nasty edge to it, though.
Alan
The person doesn’t have to be ugly, but sometimes just undesirable or unreliable in some way.
Let’s say you have a rather bohemian cousin who never keeps a reliable schedule. If your friends and family invite him to a gathering, they can never be sure whether he’ll come or at what time. So, you’re all sitting around, and 45 minutes before everyone is supposed to go home, or maybe when everyone is almost finished with dinner, in walks your cousin looking like he’s just rolled out of bed. This is one situation where we might say, affectionately or angrily, “Look what the cat dragged in!” Another thing we might say then is, “Look what the wind just blew in!”
Alan is right, though. Cats have a tendency to bring us home ugly, dead, smelly “gifts”, and “Look what the cat dragged in,” can indicate that some ugly or undesirable person has just walked in, and we have to figure out what to do.
Hi Guys
The origin of the expression “look what the cat dragged in” is not fully known
However it is rumoured that in 1984 A 6 year old school boy from Dublin, Eire
Used this expression when a fellow student walked in to the class late. The teacher laughed so much that he later told his friends and colleagues, about this funny incident, hence how the expression spread.
Hope this helps
Bobby