tree cat
1
6.3
- noun
- In the rainforest, a curious tree cat climbed gracefully among the branches.
Examples
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In the Sumatran village where the beans are grown... ...lives a breed of wild tree cat.
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Come here, you bobtailed little tree cat.
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It was the tree cat.
Fiction book (1999) -
The tree cat is known for its excellent climbing skills and distinctive markings.
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While exploring the forest, we spotted a rare tree cat resting on a high branch.
Synonyms
2
2.1
A small animal with a bushy tail that lives mainly in trees
1
4.2
A slow-moving animal that lives in trees in Central and South America and hangs upside down to eat leaves
1
9.9
A large reddish-brown mammal like a raccoon that lives in trees in Southeast Asia
1
9.1
A large dark brown North American animal that climbs trees to hunt small animals
1
8.9
A squirrel that people see as a pest
1
6.5
A large tree squirrel from eastern North America with a bushy tail
A night animal that lives in trees in Southeast Asia and glides using a skin fold from neck to tail
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a small wild cat or similar animal that lives mainly in trees' is directly derivable from combining 'tree' and 'cat' — it denotes a cat associated with trees. Noun–noun compounding to indicate a subtype or location is cross-linguistically common and follows straightforward composition patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer this sense.
Etymology
Tree cat comes from the simple picture of a cat living in trees: imagine a small wild cat moving and hunting among the branches. That's why it means 'a small wild cat that lives mainly in trees'.