cat melodeon
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editCompare cat (“terrible”) and cat's melody.
Ciaran Carson suggests influence of Irish cat marbh/cat mara; literally "dead cat"/"sea cat", figuratively "calamity".[1]
Adjective
edit- (Ireland, informal) terrible, appalling; of very poor quality
- 1997, Michael Coady, “The Longest Puck”, in All Souls, Gallery Press, →ISBN, page 65:
- We're fed up of
festivals and funerals
and Munster Finals
with backs that were
cat melodeon.
- 2016 April 18, “Broadband service is ‘cat melodeon'”, in The Southern Star[1]:
- Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) pointed out that half of West Cork doesn’t have phone coverage either, and that the situation with broadband was ‘cat melodeon’.
- (Ireland, informal) cacophonous; raucous
- 2021 Christy Moore and Wally Page, "Zozimus & Zimmerman"
- The lights went down and the crowd went cat melodeon
- We were all revved up and ready to engage
- Having hitch hiked all the way from Minnesota
- Zimmerman was there before us on the stage
- 2021 Christy Moore and Wally Page, "Zozimus & Zimmerman"