Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Cat \Cat\, n. [AS. cat; akin to D. & Dan. kat, Sw. kett, Icel.
   k["o]ttr, G. katze, kater, Ir. Cat, W. cath, Armor. kaz, LL.
   catus, Bisc. catua, NGr. ?, ?, Russ. & Pol. cot, Turk. kedi,
   Ar. qitt; of unknown origin. CF. {Ketten}.]
   1. (Zo["o]l.) An animal of various species of the genera
      {Felis} and {Lynx}. The domestic cat is {Felis domestica}.
      The European wild cat ({Felis catus}) is much larger than
      the domestic cat. In the United States the name {wild cat}
      is commonly applied to the bay lynx ({Lynx rufus}) See
      {Wild cat}, and {Tiger cat}.

   Note: The domestic cat includes many varieties named from
         their place of origin or from some peculiarity; as, the
         {Angora cat}; the {Maltese cat}; the {Manx cat}.

   Note: The word cat is also used to designate other animals,
         from some fancied resemblance; as, civet cat, fisher
         cat, catbird, catfish shark, sea cat.

   2. (Naut.)
      (a) A strong vessel with a narrow stern, projecting
          quarters, and deep waist. It is employed in the coal
          and timber trade.
      (b) A strong tackle used to draw an anchor up to the
          cathead of a ship. --Totten.

   3. A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.), having six
      feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever
      position in is placed.

   4. An old game;
      (a) The game of tipcat and the implement with which it is
          played. See {Tipcat}.
      (c) A game of ball, called, according to the number of
          batters, one old cat, two old cat, etc.

   5. A cat o' nine tails. See below.

   {Angora cat}, {blind cat}, See under {Angora}, {Blind}.

   {Black cat} the fisher. See under {Black}.

   {Cat and dog}, like a cat and dog; quarrelsome; inharmonious.
      ``I am sure we have lived a cat and dog life of it.''
      --Coleridge.

   {Cat block} (Naut.), a heavy iron-strapped block with a large
      hook, part of the tackle used in drawing an anchor up to
      the cathead.

   {Cat hook} (Naut.), a strong hook attached to a cat block.

   {Cat nap}, a very short sleep. [Colloq.]

   {Cat o' nine tails}, an instrument of punishment consisting
      of nine pieces of knotted line or cord fastened to a
      handle; -- formerly used to flog offenders on the bare
      back.

   {Cat's cradle}, game played, esp. by children, with a string
      looped on the fingers so, as to resemble small cradle. The
      string is transferred from the fingers of one to those of
      another, at each transfer with a change of form. See
      {Cratch}, {Cratch cradle}.

   {To let the cat out of the bag}, to tell a secret, carelessly
      or willfully. [Colloq.]

   {Bush cat}, the serval. See {Serval}.

Cat \Cat\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {tted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Catting}.] (Naut.)
   To bring to the cathead; as, to cat an anchor. See {Anchor}.
   --Totten.

Source : WordNet®

cat
     n 1: feline mammal usually having thick soft fur and being unable
          to roar; domestic cats; wildcats [syn: {true cat}]
     2: an informal term for a youth or man; "a nice guy"; "the
        guy's only doing it for some doll" [syn: {guy}, {hombre},
        {bozo}]
     3: a spiteful woman gossip; "what a cat she is!"
     4: the leaves of the shrub Catha edulis which are chewed like
        tobacco or used to make tea; has the effect of a euphoric
        stimulant; "in Yemen kat is used daily by 85% of adults"
        [syn: {kat}, {khat}, {qat}, {quat}, {Arabian tea}, {African
        tea}]
     5: a whip with nine knotted cords; "British sailors feared the
        cat" [syn: {cat-o'-nine-tails}]
     6: a large vehicle that is driven by caterpillar tracks;
        frequently used for moving earth in construction and farm
        work [syn: {Caterpillar}]
     7: any of several large cats typically able to roar and living
        in the wild [syn: {big cat}]
     8: a method of examining body organs by scanning them with X
        rays and using a computer to construct a series of
        cross-sectional scans along a single axis [syn: {computerized
        tomography}, {computed tomography}, {CT}, {computerized
        axial tomography}, {computed axial tomography}]
     [also: {catting}, {catted}]

cat
     v 1: beat with a cat-o'-nine-tails
     2: eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth; "After
        drinking too much, the students vomited"; "He purged
        continuously"; "The patient regurgitated the food we gave
        him last night" [syn: {vomit}, {vomit up}, {purge}, {cast},
         {sick}, {be sick}, {disgorge}, {regorge}, {retch}, {puke},
         {barf}, {spew}, {spue}, {chuck}, {upchuck}, {honk}, {regurgitate},
         {throw up}] [ant: {keep down}]
     [also: {catting}, {catted}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

CAT
     
        Common Abstract Tree Language.  R. Voeller & Uwe Schmidt, U
        Kiel, Germany 1983.  Universal intermediate language, used by
        Norsk Data in their family of compilers.  "A Multi-Language
        Compiler System with Automatically Generated Codegenerators,
        U. Schmidt et al, SIGPLAN Notices 19(6):202-2121 (June 1984).
     
        [{Jargon File}]

cat
     
         (From "catenate") {Unix}'s command which copies one or
        more entire files to the screen or some other output sink
        without pause.
     
        See also {dd}, {BLT}.
     
        Among {Unix} fans, cat is considered an excellent example of
        user-interface design, because it delivers the file contents
        without such verbosity as spacing or headers between the files
        (the {pr} command can be used to do this), and because it does
        not require the files to consist of lines of text, but works
        with any sort of data.
     
        Among Unix haters, cat is considered the {canonical} example
        of *bad* user-interface design, because of its woefully
        unobvious name.  It is far more often used to {blast} a file
        to standard output than to concatenate files.  The name "cat"
        for the former operation is just as unintuitive as, say,
        LISP's {cdr}.
     
        Of such oppositions are {holy wars} made.
     
        (1994-11-29)