Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tear a cat

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.21 in modern English

Syllables: tear a -cat
IPA

10

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To overact; to violently rant and rave on stage.

Obsolete

Example Sentences

"Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant. I could play / Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split."
"Sirha is this you would rend and teare the Cat / Upon a Stage, and now march like drown'd rat?"
"Till, in his periwig combustion / Will. Shakespeare sounds like Irish fustian, / In which Macready tears a cat, / And Shiel, the patriot, writes so pat;"
"From this performance there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Hamlet is an amateur actor having a fling at histrionics, or as Guthrie might say, "tearing a cat.""

Usage

Obsolete

Inflected Forms

tears a cat (present, singular) tearing a cat (participle, present) tore a cat (past) torn a cat (participle, past)

Phrases

tear-cat

Frequently Paired Words

tear-cat

Synonyms

chew the scenery ham ham it up melodramatize overact

Questions

What does tear a cat mean?: To overact; to violently rant and rave on stage.

How to pronounce tear a cat

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