Cheshire cat
- a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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- 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 of cheshire cat
Leila relaxed exaggeratedly in her chair, her Cheshire-cat smile predominating her features.
Marjorie Dean College JuniorPauline Lester
Alice was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire-Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.
Alice in WonderlandLewis 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 CrowdsEverett Dean Martin
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.