alley cat
a homeless, usually mongrel, cat that scavenges for food in alleys, streets, etc.
Origin of alley cat
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use alley cat in a sentence
The alley cat and her kittens would have mugged him already.
Up To a Point: Robber Barons Make Way For Robber Nerds | P. J. O’Rourke | August 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTRat is tough, a 15-year-old “alley cat” version of her beautiful mother, Vanessa.
Her sorrow was like sympathy for a mangy alley cat which she could not take home.
The Job | Sinclair LewisOne cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street.
My Father's Dragon | Ruth Stiles GannettThe snow-white Angora was there as well as the mangy alley cat.
Billy Whiskers' Adventures | Frances Trego Montgomery
British Dictionary definitions for alley cat
a homeless cat that roams in back streets
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with alley cat
A promiscuous woman; also, a person of loose morals. For example, She's constantly picking up men in bars—a real alley cat. This idiom transfers a stray cat that frequents alleys in search of food to a woman of easy virtue, especially a prostitute seeking customers. [Slang; early 1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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