Word.ws English Dictionary

fat cat

fat cat noun: a rich person who contributes to a political campaign.

Noun

fat cat (plural fat cats)

  1. (slang, originally) A rich person who contributes to a political campaign.
    Synonyms:
    angel, big money man
  2. (derogatory, slang) Any affluent person who is perceived to have profited from the labor of others; and/or not to care about those of lesser means.
    • A staggering 57% of American workers believe there is a very real chance they will be unemployed in the next 5 to 7 years. But what does that matter to a bloated millionaire fat-cat like you?1997, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, The Game (motion picture), Daniel Schorr (actor)
    • For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left...2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see fat, cat.

Synonyms of fat cat

Forms of fat cat

pluralfat cats
alternative formfatcat
alternative formfat-cat

Origin of fat cat

The phrase was first used in the 1920s in the United States to describe rich political donors. By the middle of the 20th century, the term was being applied more widely to any wealthy individual.

Questions about fat cat

What does fat cat mean?
Fat cat means a rich person who contributes to a political campaign.
What part of speech is fat cat?
Fat cat is a noun.
What is the plural of fat cat?
The plural of fat cat is fat cats.

Words near fat cat in the dictionary

  1. fat bikes
  2. fat bodies
  3. fat body
  4. fat camp
  5. fat camps
  6. fat cat
  7. fat cats
  8. fat catshark
  9. fat catsharks
  10. fat cell
  11. fat cells

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fat cat (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-au-fat cat.ogg.

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