Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Out of
alignment ,crooked ,cater-corner . - adjective
Fierce ,destructive . - noun US A
fierce imaginary animal, abogeyman .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It wasn't until the red pickup parked catawampus in our driveway and we had to park on the street that Mary cracked.
Level Shilo Morlang 2012
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So when news gets out that the Super Saver Dollar Store chain plans to set up shop and run the Bottom Dollar out of town, things go catawampus.
Archive 2008-05-01 tinylittlelibrarian 2008
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But in Whitson's case, one of the pieces mysteriously hung on too long, sending the Soyuz toward earth catawampus, exposing unshielded parts of the capsule to the seering heat of reentry.
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So when news gets out that the Super Saver Dollar Store chain plans to set up shop and run the Bottom Dollar out of town, things go catawampus.
Review: Bet Your Bottom Dollar tinylittlelibrarian 2008
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She showed me the 7x6x5 cm cyst on my left ovary and pointed out that my uterus is seriously catawampus.
Fair Medical Care? Field Notes 2007
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They eat about a million times more seed than the little House Finches, they knock the feeder all catawampus (great word), spill seed all over the place and dig around in the window box where an already struggling Danish (as in, from Denmark) Lilly of the Valley clings desperately to life.
trinityboy Diary Entry trinityboy 2006
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Gradually the catawampus gained on her; she could hear the closer thudding of its hugely clawed feet, and the blasting bellow of its breath.
Roc and a Hard Place Anthony, Piers 1995
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The catawampus rushed toward her, cranking up its claws for pounce mode.
Roc and a Hard Place Anthony, Piers 1995
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The catawampus rushed toward her, cranking up its claws for pounce mode.
Roc and a Hard Place Anthony, Piers 1995
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She looked back, and saw that the catawampus was growling on the brink, unable to catch her here.
Roc and a Hard Place Anthony, Piers 1995
colleen commented on the word catawampus
var. cattywampus, probably regional.
December 17, 2006
eloriane commented on the word catawampus
–adjective
1. askew; awry.
2. positioned diagonally; cater-cornered.
–adverb
3. diagonally; obliquely: We took a shortcut and walked catawampus across the field.
Origin:
1830–40 for earlier sense “utterly”; cata- diagonally (see cater- cornered) + -wampus, perh. akin to wampish
June 26, 2009
knitandpurl commented on the word catawampus
"He looked up from his examinations, his face all catawampus from the glassicals."
Soulless by Gail Carriger, p 12
November 8, 2010