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Catamaran

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A scraggy old woman, a vixen; so called by a play on the first syllable. It properly means a raft consisting of three sticks, lashed together with ropes; used on the coasts of Coromandel and Madras.

“No, you old catamaran, though you pretend you never read novels… .”—Thackeray: Lovel the Widower, chap. i.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Cat Proverbs
Cat’s Cradle
Cat’s Foot
Cat’s Melody (The)
Cat’s Paw
Cat’s Sleep
Cats
Catacomb
Cataian
Catalogue Raisonné (French)
Catamaran
Cataphrygians
Catarrh
Catastrophe
Catch
Catch a Crab (To)
Catch a Tartar
Catch as Catch can
Catch Me at It!
Catch the Speaker’s Eye (To)
Catch Out (To)