Cheshire cat

American  

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.

Cheshire cat Cultural  

1. 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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“Smiling like a Cheshire cat” refers to anyone with a conspicuous and long-lasting smile.

Example Sentences

Arsenal's Mead last featured for England in November 2022 and said she had been "smiling like a Cheshire cat" since arriving to camp at St George's Park.

From BBC • Nov. 28, 2023

"The corners of his mouth split into a Cheshire cat smile. Waving a stack of documents, he moves towards me, like a wolf closing in on its prey."

From Salon • Sep. 20, 2023

Since both Manchester City players live in Cheshire, when England entered the tournament quarterfinals unbeaten, the skinny gray-and-black-striped kitten seemed destined to become a Cheshire cat.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2022

Enter the scares and shrieks and anxious laughs, and the dependably indispensable Colman Domingo, who pops up with a Cheshire cat grin.

From New York Times • Aug. 26, 2021

About one hundred yards up that hill ran the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway tracks, where black and navy-blue trains with a yellow Cheshire cat painted on them rumbled through town twice daily, morning and evening.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson