Word.ws English Dictionary

catbird seat

catbird seat noun: an enviable position, often one of great advantage.

Noun

catbird seat (plural catbird seats)

  1. (US, idiomatic) An enviable position, often one of great advantage.
    • With a big victory in the primary, he was sitting in the catbird seat.

catbird seat meaning in Bengali

catbird seat in Bengali

একটি ঈর্ষণীয় অবস্থান

Forms of catbird seat

pluralcatbird seats

Origin of catbird seat

The expression, as it was in use in the 19th century in the southern United States, may originate in regard to the gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). It was featured in the 1942 short story "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber, and popularized by baseball commentator Red Barber, and often referred to baseball. The expression, according to James Thurber, comes from the observation of the catbird (an Australian bird) of the family Ptilonorhynchidae. Some of the male birds will assemble several hundred colored rocks or shells, arranging them in a remarkable artistic display, in order to build a "seat" atop which his mate will eventually be enthroned.

Questions about catbird seat

What does catbird seat mean?
Catbird seat means an enviable position, often one of great advantage.
What is catbird seat in Bengali?
Catbird seat in Bengali is একটি ঈর্ষণীয় অবস্থান. See Catbird seat meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is catbird seat?
Catbird seat is a noun.
What is the plural of catbird seat?
The plural of catbird seat is catbird seats.

Words near catbird seat in the dictionary

  1. catbath
  2. catbaths
  3. catbird
  4. catbird grape
  5. catbird grapes
  6. catbird seat
  7. catbird seats
  8. catbirds
  9. catblogging
  10. catboat
  11. catboater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catbird seat (page history and authors); catbird seat (Bengali Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-catbird seat.ogg.

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