Catamaran.

A scraggy old woman, a vixen; so called by a play on the first syllable. It properly means a raft consisting of three sticks, lashed together with ropes; used on the coasts of Coromandel and Madras.

“No, you old catamaran, though you pretend you never read novels… .”—Thackeray: Lovel the Widower, chap. i.

previous entry · index · next entry

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Cat Proverbs
Cat’s Cradle
Cat’s Foot
Cat’s Melody (The)
Cat’s Paw
Cat’s Sleep
Cats
Catacomb
Cataian
Catalogue Raisonné (French)
Catamaran
Cataphrygians
Catarrh
Catastrophe
Catch
Catch a Crab (To)
Catch a Tartar
Catch as Catch can
Catch Me at It!
Catch the Speaker’s Eye (To)
Catch Out (To)