Meaning
To bell the cat is to undertake or volunteer for a dangerous, near-impossible task on behalf of others, especially one that everyone agrees would be useful but no one dares do. Usually found in the framing 'who will bell the cat?'. Literary and rather dated; most often encountered in journalism and political commentary in the fixed question form. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The idiom comes from the Aesopic fable 'Belling the Cat', in which a council of mice resolves that tying a bell around the cat's neck would warn them of its approach, only to fall silent when asked who will actually do it. The story entered English in William Langland's 'Piers Plowman' (c. 1377), which retells the fable. Separately, the phrase became attached to a historical episode: Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus, was nicknamed 'Bell-the-Cat' after he led Scottish nobles in 1482 in the risky seizure of King James III's unpopular favourites, performing the deed others had only advocated. The literal fable origin is undisputed; the Douglas episode is a later application of the expression rather than its source.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bell-the-cat (as epithet)
- belling the cat
- to bell the cat
- who will bell the cat?
Usage Examples
- Everyone agrees the chief executive should be challenged, but who will bell the cat at Friday's meeting?
- A junior auditor finally belled the cat by reporting the accounting irregularities.
- The union needed someone to bell the cat and file the first complaint.