Word.ws English Dictionary

when the cat's away

when the cat's away is the ellipsis of when the cat's away.

Origin of when the cat's away

An ellipsis (anapodoton) of when the cat's away, the mice will play.

Questions about when the cat's away

What is when the cat's away the ellipsis of?
When the cat's away is the ellipsis of when the cat's away.

Words near when the cat's away in the dictionary

  1. when pigs can fly
  2. when pigs fly
  3. when push comes to shove
  4. when shrimps whistle
  5. when the balloon goes up
  6. when the cat's away
  7. when the cat's away the mice play
  8. when the cat's away the mice will play
  9. when the chips are down
  10. when the going gets tough, the tough get going
  11. when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: when the cat's away (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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