cat in the sack
- idiom
- UK
:
gato en la bolsa
- Buying that used car felt like a cat in the sack.
Examples
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The artwork seemed impressive online, but purchasing without seeing it first is a real cat in the sack.
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When you invest in that unfamiliar company, you're really buying a cat in the sack.
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He warned me not to sign the contract, as it might turn out to be a cat in the sack.
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Investing in that startup was a cat in the sack for many investors.
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Before deciding on that holiday package, remember that it could be a cat in the sack.
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Buying a house without an inspection might be a risky cat in the sack.
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Many customers found the discount electronics to be a cat in the sack after they arrived broken.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning (‘an item whose value is unknown or risky’) is not transparently derivable from the literal constituents 'cat', 'in', 'the', 'sack' — a B1 learner who knows those words would most likely interpret a literal animal in a bag. Although the concept resembles the established idiom 'pig in a poke', English does not compositionally signal the figurative sense here, so the expression is idiomatic and unpredictable from its parts.
Etymology
Cat in the sack comes from old market tricks: a seller would put an animal inside a closed bag called a sack so the buyer could not see it, and someone hoping for a pig might find a cat instead. So, cat in the sack means buying or agreeing to something whose true value is 'unknown' and may be 'risky' or 'disappointing'.