Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Cat
A baited cat may grow as fierce as a lion.
A bawbee cat may look at a king.
A blate cat makes a proud mouse.
A cat may look at a king.German, Dutch.
A cat pent up becomes a lion.Italian.
A cat that licks the spit is not to be trusted with roast meat.Italian.
A cat that meweth much catcheth but few mice.Dutch.
A mewing cat is never a mouser.Spanish.
A mittened cat was never a good hunter.
All cats are alike gray in the night.
All cats are not to be set down for witches.French.
An old cat laps as much as a young kitten.
An old cat likes young mice.Modern Greek.
Cat after cat kind.
Cats eat what hussies spare.
Cats hide their claws.
Don’t look for five feet on a cat.Don Quixote.
He is like a cat, he always falls on his feet.
He who puts by for the night puts by for the cat.
He’s like a singed cat, better than he’s likely.
Honest is the cat when the meat is out of reach.
How can the cat help it if the maid be a fool.Italian.
I will keep no more cats than will catch mice.
It is the cat and the dog that go where they are not called.Turkish.
It takes a good many mice to kill a cat.Danish.
Keep no more cats than will catch mice.
Muffled cats are not good mousers.
Neither red-haired cat or dog is good.Spanish.
Never was a mewing cat a good mouser.Italian.
Never was cat or dog drowned that could but see the shore.
No one gives a cat to a hyena to keep.Western Africa.
Singed cats live long.German.
The cat always leaves her mark upon her friend.Spanish.
The cat and dog may kiss yet are none the better friends.
The cat broke the china.
The cat hath eaten her count.
The cat in gloves catches no mice.
The cat invites the mouse to a feast.
The cat is a good friend but scratches.Spanish, Portuguese.
The cat is absent, the mice dance.Modern Greek.
The cat is hungry when a crust contents her.
The cat is in the cream pot.
The cat is in the dove house.Spanish.
The cat knows whose lips she licks.
The cat loves fish but is loth to wet her feet.Italian, German.
The cat sees not the mouse ever.
The cat steals the rice and the dog comes and eats it.Chinese.
The cat well knows whose beard she licks.Portuguese.
The cat’s curse hurts the mice less than her bite.Livonian.
The cats that drive away mice are as good as those that catch them.German.
The liquorish cat gets many a rap.
The more you stroke the cat’s back the more she sets up her tail.Italian.
The scalded cat (or dog) dreads cold water.Italian, Spanish.
There is a cat in the meal tub.
They that bourd wi’ cats, maun count upo’ scarts.
They whip the cat if our mistress does not spin.Spanish.
Though the cat wink awhile, yet sure she is not blind.
Thou wilt get nae mair o’ the cat but the skin.
To a good cat a good rat.French.
To buy a cat in a poke.French.
Wanton kittens make sober cats.
“We are all well placed” said the cat, when she was seated on the bacon.Danish.
Well might the cat wink when both her eyes were out.
When cat and mouse agree the farmer has no chance.Danish.
When cats are mousing they don’t mew.Dutch.
When the cat’s away the mice will play.French, German, Spanish, Danish, Portuguese.
When the cat sleeps the mice play.Dutch.
When the cat’s away it’s jubilee to the mice.Dutch.
When the cat winketh, little wots the mouse what the cat thinketh.
When the weasel and a cat make a marriage it is a very ill presage.
Which is the cat and which the rat?Hassan, Rajah of Borneo asked this question of Mr. Brooke, referring to the relative strength of England and Holland.
Who is born of a cat will run after mice.
Who will not feed the cats, must feed the mice and rats.German.