grimalkin
Americannoun
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a cat.
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an old female cat.
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an ill-tempered old woman.
noun
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an old cat, esp an old female cat
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a crotchety or shrewish old woman
Etymology
Origin of grimalkin
1595–1605; apparently alteration of gray 1 + malkin, diminutive of Maud proper name; see -kin
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.
One only of all Charles Cholerton's cats escaped; a smoky grimalkin, she came slinking from a fiery window, her eyes lit with warm red fury.
From Time Magazine Archive
But her amiable heart could not survive the shock, for, after pining three months, refusing boiled liver and new milk, poor grimalkin was found "dead upon the green mound that covered her beloved mistress's remains."
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 401, November 28, 1829 by Various
It is the visage of grimalkin, outside of the window, where he appears to have posted himself for a deliberate watch.
From House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
I reverted to my pillow, and fell into a train of conjectures touching the grimalkin.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844 Volume 23, Number 6 by Clark, Lewis Gaylord
"Like a respectable old grimalkin at the mercy of a crowd of boys and a tin kettle," added Jeannie, laughing.
From A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. by Whitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
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.
