the cat's meow
3
9.2
- idiom
- /ðə kæts maɪoʊ/
- Archaic
:
lo mejor
- Her solo performance last night was truly the cat's meow of the event.
Examples
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Well, aren't you the cat's meow.
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That lick you played was the cat's meow, man.
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When it comes to cooking, I'm the cat's meow.
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Well, I think you're the cat's meow.
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Liz is the cat's meow.
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She thinks you're the cat's meow.
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It was the cat's meow and I hadn't been that excited in a long time.
Blog text (34) -
They're the cat's meow.
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If you want a job with great benefits, working at this company is the cat's meow.
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In the world of technology, that new smartphone is the cat's meow.
Antonyms
How Excellent
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + cat's + meow
The meaning 'outstandingly good' is not derivable from the literal constituents 'cat's' (belonging to a cat) and 'meow' (the sound a cat makes); a B1 learner who knows those words would most likely picture a cat sound rather than infer praise. This is an idiomatic, culturally specific colloquialism whose positive evaluative sense is unpredictable without prior exposure, so it is opaque to learners.
Etymology
The cat's meow comes from a playful saying in the 1920s when people used fun animal phrases. They imagined a cat's soft, pleasing meow as something special, so calling something the cat's meow means it is 'very good' or 'outstanding'.