Word.ws English Dictionary

catawampous

catawampous is the alternative form of catawampus.

Meaning of catawampus

Adjective (1)

catawampus (comparative more catawampus, superlative most catawampus)

  1. (US) Out of alignment, in disarray or disorder: crooked, askew.
    • "Waal, I noticed ez the aidge o' one o' them boards war sot sorter catawampus, ...".1885, Charles Egbert Craddock, Down the Ravine

Adjective (2)

catawampus (comparative more catawampus, superlative most catawampus)

  1. (US) Fierce, destructive.
    • There air some catawampous chawers in the small way too, as graze upon a human pretty strong; but don't mind them, they're company.1844, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit

See all 5 meanings of catawampus

Forms of catawampous

comparativemore catawampous
superlativemost catawampous

Questions about catawampous

What is catawampous the alternative form of?
Catawampous is the alternative form of catawampus.

Words near catawampous in the dictionary

  1. catatorulin
  2. catatricrotism
  3. Catatumbo
  4. Catatumbo lightning
  5. Cataumet
  6. catawampous
  7. catawampously
  8. catawamptious
  9. catawamptiously
  10. catawampus
  11. catawampuses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catawampous (page history and authors); catawampus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “catawampous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catawampous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.