Word.ws English Dictionary

Kilkenny cat

Kilkenny cat noun: a tenacious fighter.

Noun

Kilkenny cat (plural Kilkenny cats)

  1. A tenacious fighter.
    • Yet for my father the war was a source of considerable inner conflict; much as he detested Nazism he was psychologically incapable of desiring a British victory. (Very likely his secret wish was that Germany and Britain should do a Kilkenny cat act.1979, Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels, page 66
    • Even pirate crews and bands of robbers prefer a peaceful settled understanding as to the division of their plunder to the Kilkenny cat plan.1984, Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, →ISBN, page 29

Forms of Kilkenny cat

pluralKilkenny cats

Origin of Kilkenny cat

Referring to an old story about two cats who fought to the death and ate each other up such that only their tails were left.

Questions about Kilkenny cat

What does Kilkenny cat mean?
Kilkenny cat means a tenacious fighter.
What part of speech is Kilkenny cat?
Kilkenny cat is a noun.
What is the plural of Kilkenny cat?
The plural of Kilkenny cat is Kilkenny cats.

Words near Kilkenny cat in the dictionary

  1. Kiliwas
  2. Kiliyang
  3. kilk
  4. Kilkee
  5. Kilkenny
  6. Kilkenny cat
  7. Kilkenny cats
  8. Kilker
  9. Kilkers
  10. Kilkiling
  11. kill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kilkenny 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.

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