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What does the noun catawampus mean? There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun catawampus . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
CATAWAMPUS definition: 1. going badly, awkwardly, or in the wrong direction: 2. going badly, awkwardly, or in the wrong…. Learn more.
Catawampus, meaning “askew, diagonal,” is first recorded in the 1830–40s. Originally, catawampus also meant “fierce.” It’s thought to be an American colloquialism influenced by the cater-in cater-cornered (or for many of us, kitty-corner) and wampish, Scottish for “flopping about.”
23 cze 2024 · catawampus (comparative more catawampus, superlative most catawampus) Out of alignment, in disarray or disorder: crooked, askew.
24 paź 2016 · Catawampous, or catawamptious, a word enlarged in the West from catamount. This animal had already furnished the hunter with the expression, "he dropped on him like a catamount on a coon," and hence, no doubt, the further development of the word.
1. askew; awry. 2. positioned diagonally; cater-cornered. adverb. 3. diagonally; obliquely. We took a shortcut and walked catawampus across the field. Also: cattywampus. Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019 by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Word origin.
The meaning of CATAWAMPUS is an imaginary fierce wild animal : bogey.