Meaning
A very short, light spell of sleep, usually during the day, from which the sleeper wakes easily and feels refreshed. It implies dozing rather than proper deep sleep, and the verb form means to take such a brief doze. Neutral everyday register, applied to humans as readily as to actual cats. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The compound is transparently a nap such as a cat takes, from the feline habit of dozing briefly and lightly many times a day rather than sleeping in one long stretch. The earliest form was the possessive cat's nap. Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to 1801, while Etymonline records the compound noun by 1823 and the verb from 1859; spelling has settled variously on cat nap, cat-nap and the single word catnap, all still in use, and the OED's earliest evidence for the verb is from 1823.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- cat's nap
- take a catnap
Usage Examples
- A twenty-minute cat nap after lunch gets him through the night shift.
- She took a cat nap on the train and arrived surprisingly refreshed.
- He calls it resting his eyes, but we all know he is catnapping in the back office.