cool cat
4
8.4
- noun
- /kuːl kæt/
- Archaic
:
persona con estilo
- She quickly became known as a cool cat among her friends for her effortless style and charm.
- one cool cat
And, you know, my dad was just the coolest cat.
- And, you know, my dad was just the coolest cat.
- But hey, all you cool cats and kittens, it's Carol Baskin from Big Cat Rescue.
- Whatever, man, you know, I told you, you was a cool cat.
- And he was just a, a cool cat, you know, very, very much a cat's cat, you could say.
- And so Captain Wow is kind of this cool cat who who goes along and helps them fight against the Dragons.
- And, you know, and one of the, you know, coolest couple of cool cats that I was in in in treatment with were gay man and they.
Examples
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As for Aussies, well, I think we all know they tend to be cool cats.
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Adam Moorad is a cool cat.
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And he was just a, a cool cat, you know, very, very much a cat's cat, you could say.
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Your parents were some pretty cool cats.
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I feel so honored to be here, and it could only be better if a cool cat walked in.
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They're two pretty cool cats.
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Chef Ramsay, outside the kitchen, is a cool cat.
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Britton's a cool cat and Fed's the GOAT.
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I’m just trying to act like all the other cool cats my age.
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He's a cool cat.
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Antonyms
How Cool
- Informal
156
6.8
- Archaic
4
8.4
- Informal
30
3.9
- Offensive
31
8.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a stylish, confident person' is directly and compositionally derived from 'cool' (stylish) + 'cat' (slang for a person), so a learner who knows both constituent senses can infer the MWE. Although colloquial/slang, the adjective+noun composition and the concept of calling someone a 'cat' as a person are straightforward and cross-linguistically common, making it transparent to learners who know the parts.
Etymology
The phrase cool cat comes from old jazz slang when relaxed, stylish musicians were called cool and compared to calm, graceful cats, and one popular story says people saw cats as smooth and unbothered, so the image stuck. That's why cool cat now means 'a stylish, confident, or relaxed person'.