Cheshire cat

Origin

Cheshire cat

noun
1.
a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
2.
grin like a Cheshire cat, to smile or grin inscrutably.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Cheshire cat is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
Main Entry:  Cheshire cat
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  a cat with a broad grin, esp. fictitious
Etymology:  from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

Cheshire cat
and its proverbial grin attested from 1770, of unknown origin.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
Cheshire cat [(chesh-uhr)]

A cat with an enormous grin encountered by Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. The cat tends to disappear, leaving only its smile hanging in the air.

Note: “Smiling like a Cheshire cat” refers to anyone with a conspicuous and long-lasting smile.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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