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Cheshire cat

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noun
  1. a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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Idioms
  1. grin like a Cheshire cat, to smile or grin inscrutably.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cheshire cat

Historical Examples

  • Leila relaxed exaggeratedly in her chair, her Cheshire-cat smile predominating her features.

    Marjorie Dean College Junior

    Pauline Lester

  • Alice was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire-Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

    Alice in Wonderland

    Lewis Carroll

  • But on the Cheshire-cat hypothesis, the social problem can never be solved, because it is not a real problem at all.

    The Behavior of Crowds

    Everett Dean Martin

cheshire cat in Culture

Cheshire cat

[(chesh-uhr)]

A cat with an enormous grin encountered by Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. The cat tends to disappear, leaving only its smile hanging in the air.

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Note

“Smiling like a Cheshire cat” refers to anyone with a conspicuous and long-lasting smile.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.