Word.ws English Dictionary

herds cats

herds cats is the third-person singular simple present indicative of herd cats.

Meaning of herd cats

Verb

herd cats (third-person singular simple present herds cats, present participle herding cats, simple past and past participle herded cats)

  1. (idiomatic) To attempt to control the uncontrollable; to attempt to manage a great many unruly factors or people to a single end.
    • Managing volunteers from fourteen different organizations is like herding cats.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see herd, cat.
    • It would be hard teaching a shepherd dog to herd cats, or even to herd sheep, before he leaves off his puppy ways and shows himself ready to become a good shepherd.1924, Daniel Wolford La Rue, The Child’s Mind and the Common Branches, →OCLC, page 36

Questions about herds cats

What is herds cats the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Herds cats is the third-person singular simple present indicative of herd cats.

Words near herds cats in the dictionary

  1. herdmates
  2. herdmen
  3. herdowner
  4. herdowners
  5. herds
  6. herds cats
  7. herds together
  8. herds-grass
  9. herdsboy
  10. herdsboys
  11. herdsgirl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: herds cats (page history and authors); herd cats (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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