Meaning
A teasing or mocking way of acknowledging someone's arrival, implying that they look untidy, exhausted or rough, or that their appearance is an unwelcome surprise. The matching simile, like something the cat dragged in, describes anyone or anything appearing bedraggled. Informal and jocular; friendly among intimates but potentially insulting to a stranger. Regional use: General English; originally American.
Origin
The image is literal: cats carry battered prey indoors. The phrase is American in origin. The earliest known 'dragged' example appears in the Junction City Union of Kansas (30 June 1888), which said two shabby travelling shows 'reminded us of something the cats dragged in'. An earlier, possibly punning use of 'something the cat brought in' appears in the Perrysburg Journal of Ohio (2 February 1877), and the first clear figurative use of that 'brought in' form is in the Coconino Sun of Flagstaff, Arizona (9 October 1908). The greeting form and the simile developed from these in twentieth-century American English and then spread into general English.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- like something the cat brought in
- like something the cat dragged in
- look what the cat drug in
- look what the cat's dragged in
- look who the cat dragged in
Usage Examples
- Well, look what the cat dragged in, grinned Marcus as his brothers stumbled in at dawn, still wearing yesterday's clothes.
- You look like something the cat dragged in; go and get some sleep before the interview.
- When the intern finally logged on at noon, the project chat lit up with 'look who the cat dragged in'.