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definitions

Cheshire cat

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noun

a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Idioms

    grin like a Cheshire cat, to smile or grin inscrutably.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

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.

  • 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.

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.