Cat got your tongue?

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Meaning

A teasing or mildly challenging question asked when someone is unexpectedly silent or unwilling to answer.

Origin

The expression is surprisingly recent in the written record. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation is from Henry Howard Harper's novel Bob Hardwick in 1911, although it may have circulated orally before then. Nobody has established why a cat is imagined to have taken the tongue. Stories about the cat-o'-nine-tails, ancient punishments, tongues being fed to cats, or the Egyptian goddess Bastet have no supporting evidence and should not be given as origins.

Research Sources

  1. Cat got your tongue? Grammarphobia
  2. cat got your tongue Merriam-Webster

Variants

  • Has the cat got your tongue?
  • The cat's got your tongue

Usage Examples

  • You were full of opinions yesterday, so what is it now - cat got your tongue?
  • When the chair asked who had changed the figures, the whole room went quiet until she said, 'Cat got your tongue?'
  • Has the cat got your tongue, or are you still deciding how to answer?

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