longhaired cat
- noun
- /ˈlɔːŋˌhɛrd kæt/
- The longhaired cat purred contentedly while curled up in its owner's lap.
Examples
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The elderly, longhaired cat sat on the cement floor, flicked its tail, and stared at him as Roanoke laid his barbering paraphernalia on the window seat.
Fiction book (1999) -
She adopted a fluffy longhaired cat from the animal shelter last weekend.
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The longhaired cat groomed its beautiful fur in the sunbeam that came through the window.
Synonyms
A small, furry pet or a large wild animal like a lion
A small furry animal people keep as a pet that often catches mice
An animal with long soft fur like a cat or rabbit
How Furry
Surface Forms
Morphology
longhaired + cat
The phrase is a straightforward adjective+noun composition: 'longhaired' (having long hair) modifies 'cat', so the meaning 'a cat with long, flowing fur' is directly derivable from the parts. This is a productive, cross-linguistically common pattern (adjective describing a physical property + noun), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily understand it.
Etymology
Longhaired cat comes from the simple picture of a cat with lots of long fur. Long describes the fur and haired means 'covered in hair', so the phrase means 'a pet cat with long fur'.