_How can the cat help it when the maid is a fool?_ Often things lost, given, or stolen, are laid to the cat.
_If thou "scap"st, thou hast cat"s luck_, in Fletcher"s _Knight of Malta_, alluding to the activity and caution of the cat, which generally stands it in good stead.
_I"ll not buy a cat in a poke._ F., _Chat en Poche_. See what you buy; bargain not on another"s word.
_Just as quick as a cat up a walnut-tree._--D"URFEY. To climb well and easily. To be alert and sudden.
_Let the cat wink, and let the mouse run._ For want of watching and care much is lost.--HAZLITT"S "Dodsley," i. 265. The first portion is in the interlude of "The World and the Child," 1522.
_Like a cat he"ll fall on his legs._ To succeed, never to fail, always right.
_Like a cat round hot milk._ Wait and have; all things come to those who wait.
_Little and little the cat eateth the stickle._--HEYWOOD. Constant dropping weareth a stone.
_Long and slender like a cat"s elbow._--HAZLITT. A sneer at the ill-favoured.
_Love me, love my cat._--This refers to one marrying; in taking a wife he must take her belongings. Or, where you like, you must avoid contention.
_Never was cat or dog drowned that could see the sh.o.r.e._ To know the way often brings a right ending.
_None but cats and dogs are allowed to quarrel here._ All else agree.
_No playing with a straw before an old cat._--HEYWOOD, 1562. Every trifling toy age cannot laugh at.--"Youth and Folly, Age and Wisdom."
_Rats walk at their ease if cats do not them meese._--WODROEPHE, 1623.
Rogues abound where laws are weak.
_Send not a cat for lard._--GEORGE HERBERT. Put not any to temptation.
_So as cat is after kind._ Near friends are dearest. Birds of a feather flock together.
_Take the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat"s paw._ Making use of others to save oneself.
_That comes of a cat will catch mice._ What is bred in the bone comes out in the flesh. Like father, like son.
_The cat and dog may kiss, but are none the better friends._ Policy is one thing, friendship another.
_The cat invites the mouse to her feast._ It is difficult for the weak to refuse the strong.
_The cat is in the cream-pot._ Any one"s fault but hers. A row in the house (Northern).
_The cat is hungry when a crust contents her._ Hunger is a good sauce.
_The cat is out of kind that sweet milk will not lap._ One is wrong who forsakes custom.--"History of Jacob and Esau," 1568.
_The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog, rule England under one hog._--"A Myrrour for Magistrates," edition 1563, fol. 143. This couplet is a satire on Richard III. (who carried a boar on his escutcheon) and his myrmidons, _Cat_esby, _Rat_cliffe, and Lovell.
_The cat would eat fish, and would not wet her feet._--HEYWOOD, 1562.
"Fain would the cat fish eat, But she is loth to wet her feet."
"What cat"s averse to fish?"--GRAY.
Dr. Trench has pointed out the allusion to this saying in _Macbeth_, when Lady Macbeth speaks of her husband as a man,
"Letting I dare not, wait upon I would, Like the poor cat i" the adage."
_The cat sees not the mouse ever._--HEYWOOD. Those that should hide, see more than they who seek. The fearful eye sees far.
_The liquorish cat gets many a rap._ The wrong-doer escapes not.
_The more you rub a cat on the back, the higher she sets her tail._ Praise the vain and they are more than pleased. Flattery and vanity are near akin.
_The mouse lords it where the cat is not._--MS., 15th century. The little rule, where there are no great.
_The old cat laps as much as the young._--CLARKE. One evil is much like another.
_They agree like two cats in gutter._--HEYWOOD. To be less than friends.
_They argue like cats and dogs._ That is to quarrel.
_Thou"lt strip it, as Stack stripped the cat when he pulled her out of the churn._ To take away everything.
_Though the cat winks awhile, yet sure he is not blind._ To know all and pretend ignorance.
_To grin like a Cheshire cat._ Said to be like a cheese cat, often made in Cheshire; but this is not very clear, and the meaning doubtful.
_To go like a cat on a hot bake-stone._ To lose no time. To be swift and stay not.
_To keep a cat from the tongs._ To stop at home in idleness. It is said of a youth who stays at home with his family, when others go to the wars abroad, in "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving Men,"
1598.
_Too late repents the rat when caught by the cat._ Shun danger, nor dare too long.
_To love it as a cat loves mustard._ Not at all. To abhor.
_Two cats and a mouse, two wives in one house, two dogs and one bone, never agree._ No peace when all want to be masters, or to possess one object.
_Well might the cat wink when both her eyes were out._
"Sumwhat it was sayeth the proverbe old, That the cat winked when here iye was out."
_Jack Juggler_, edit. 1848, p. 46.
Those bribed are worse than blind.
"_Well wots the cat whose beard she licketh._"--SKELTON"S _Garlande of Laurel_, 1523.
"Wel wot nure cat whas berd he lickat."--WRIGHT"S _Essays_, vol. i. p.