Kilkenny cats
Americanplural noun
Etymology
Origin of Kilkenny cats
First recorded in 1815–25
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Efforts to get the Chamber's "Sacred Truce" into legal form set Deputies of all factions fighting like Kilkenny cats.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mad as Kilkenny cats, the farmers went ahead, felling trees across the road and cutting telephone and telegraph wires.
From Time Magazine Archive
With a 20-year tradition of amiable meetings, this time the American Society of Newspaper Editors wrangled like Kilkenny cats.
From Time Magazine Archive
The two things will neutralize one another's effect,—like Kilkenny cats, you know.
From The Henchman by Luther, Mark Lee
One would think you boys were a pair of Kilkenny cats the way you squabble with each other!
From Carl and the Cotton Gin by Bassett, Sara Ware
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
