Word.ws English Dictionary

set the cat among the pigeons

set the cat among the pigeons is the alternative form of put the cat among the pigeons.

Meaning of put the cat among the pigeons

Verb

put the cat among the pigeons (third-person singular simple present puts the cat among the pigeons, present participle putting the cat among the pigeons, simple past and past participle put the cat among the pigeons)

  1. (figuratively) To cause alarm, fuss, or agitation.
    • Professor Stephen Hawking put the cat among the pigeons last week with his cheery remarks about comet Machholz-2, which some astronomers believe could be heading our way.1994 September 19, The Times

Forms of set the cat among the pigeons

third-person singular presentsets the cat among the pigeons
present participlesetting the cat among the pigeons
past participleset the cat among the pigeons
pastset the cat among the pigeons

Questions about set the cat among the pigeons

What is set the cat among the pigeons the alternative form of?
Set the cat among the pigeons is the alternative form of put the cat among the pigeons.

Words near set the cat among the pigeons in the dictionary

  1. set squares
  2. set store by
  3. set straight
  4. set the ball rolling
  5. set the bar
  6. set the cat among the pigeons
  7. set the heather alight
  8. set the heather on fire
  9. set the land
  10. set the pace
  11. set the record straight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set the cat among the pigeons (page history and authors); put the cat among the pigeons (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: “set the cat among the pigeons.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/set_the_cat_among_the_pigeons. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.