catgut
/ˈkætˌɡʌt/
catgut noun: a cord of great toughness made from the intestines of animals, especially of sheep, used for strings of musical instruments, racquets, sutures etc.
Noun
catgut (countable and uncountable, plural catguts)
- A cord of great toughness made from the intestines of animals, especially of sheep, used for strings of musical instruments, racquets, sutures etc.
- The thing about Proust is his combination of the utmost sensibility with the utmost tenacity. He searches out these butterfly shades to the last grain. He is as tough as catgut & as evanescent as a butterfly's bloom.1953, Virginia Woolf, “Tuesday, April 8th”, in Leonard Woolf, editor, A Writer's Diary, page 71
- Eventually they carved small paddles to strike the ball and refined this implement with a mesh of catgut.1971, Will Grimsley, Julius David Heldman, Tennis: Its History, People and Events, Prentice-Hall, →ISBN, page 3
- The material from which such cords are made.
- A sort of linen or canvas, with wide interstices.
- Tephrosia virginiana (goat's rue, devil's shoestring).
catgut meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Kannada
catgut in Hindi
- catgut, string
- ताँत tā̃t
catgut in Tamil
- தயல் நரம்பு, தைப்பிழை
catgut in Urdu
- تانت
catgut in Kannada
- ಕರುಳುಹುರಿ
More languagesFewer languages
- catgut in Punjabi
- ਤਾਂਤ tānt
- catgut in Malay
- katgut
- catgut in Indonesian
- ketgat
Forms of catgut
| plural | catguts |
|---|
Origin of catgut
Possibly an abbreviation of the word cattlegut. Alternatively, it may derive by folk etymology from kitgut or kitstring — the word kit, meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word kit for a young cat.
Words formed from catgut
Phrases with catgut
Questions about catgut
- What does catgut mean?
- Catgut means a cord of great toughness made from the intestines of animals, especially of sheep, used for strings of musical instruments, racquets, sutures etc.
- What is catgut in Hindi?
- Catgut in Hindi is ताँत (tā̃t). See Catgut meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is catgut?
- Catgut is a noun.
- How do you pronounce catgut?
- Catgut is pronounced /ˈkætˌɡʌt/.
- What is the plural of catgut?
- The plural of catgut is catguts.
Words near catgut in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: catgut (page history and authors); ताँत (Hindi) (page history and authors); catgut (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); catgut (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); catgut (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਤਾਂਤ (Punjabi) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-catgut.ogg.
Cite this entry: “catgut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catgut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.