Japan cat

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

Japan cat (plural Japan cats)

  1. (dated) A toast rack (“rack for holding toasted bread”).
    • 1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XI, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 59:
      ["I]t was only last Christmas that I bought my Japan cat. / "Dear me," said Miss Jemima; "a Japan cat! that must be very curious. What sort of a creature is it?" / "Don't you know? Bless me, a thing with three legs, and holds toast! [...]"
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