shoot the cat
"shoot-the-cat" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shoot the cat” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To vomit.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shoot-the-cat · shoot the cat · English
shoot the cat · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shoot the cat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “shoot the cat” in English
Rare enough to double-check
shoot the cat is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To vomit.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for shoot the cat in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is shoot the cat, spelled S-H-O-O-T- -T-H-E- -C-A-T.
Definition
- 1To vomit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how shoot the cat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“[…] I am telling you the man is as sick as a— a—” “A dog,” Roland supplied. “Shot the cat twice after we got him to bed.”
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.