Word.ws English Dictionary

make a cat laugh

make a cat laugh verb: to be extremely funny.

Verb

make a cat laugh (third-person singular simple present makes a cat laugh, present participle making a cat laugh, simple past and past participle made a cat laugh)

  1. To be extremely funny.
    • The only play I know of that has ever established a trademark is "Charlie's Aunt." Perhaps some of you recall "Charlie's Aunt." Before that play was produced in New York City the only printed commentary was "it makes a cat laugh."1914 March, Edmund Breese, “The Art of Advertising an Actor”, in The Rotarian, volume 4, number 7, page 28
    • All the bowing and scraping was enough to make a cat laugh, but the Princess took it all in her stride — her demeanour commonsensical (didn't everyone who went by train get this sort of treatment?) and a shade demure.2013, Robert Barnard, Death and the Princess

Forms of make a cat laugh

third-person singular presentmakes a cat laugh
present participlemaking a cat laugh
past participlemade a cat laugh
pastmade a cat laugh

Origin of make a cat laugh

Coined in 1893 as part of the advertising for the Broadway production of the play Charlie's Aunt, ("it makes a cat laugh") based on the observation that cats do not laugh.

Questions about make a cat laugh

What does make a cat laugh mean?
Make a cat laugh means to be extremely funny.
What part of speech is make a cat laugh?
Make a cat laugh is a verb.
What is the past tense of make a cat laugh?
The past tense of make a cat laugh is made a cat laugh.

Words near make a cat laugh in the dictionary

  1. make a break for it
  2. make a career of
  3. make a career out of
  4. make a case
  5. make a case for
  6. make a cat laugh
  7. make a clean breast
  8. make a dash for it
  9. make a day of it
  10. make a decision
  11. make a dent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make a cat laugh (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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Cite this entry: “make a cat laugh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_a_cat_laugh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.