To go like a cat on a hot bake-stone. To lose no time. To be swift and stay not.
To keep a cat from the tongs. To stop at home in idleness. It is said of a youth who stays at home with his family, when others go to the wars abroad, in "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving Men," 1598.
Too late repents the rat when caught by the cat. Shun danger, nor dare too long.
To love it as a cat loves mustard. Not at all. To abhor.
Two cats and a mouse, two wives in one house, two dogs and one bone, never agree. No peace when all want to be masters, or to possess one object.
Well might the cat wink when both her eyes were out.
"Sumwhat it was sayeth the proverbe old,
That the cat winked when here iye was out."
Jack Juggler, edit. 1848, p. 46.
Those bribed are worse than blind.
"Well wots the cat whose beard she licketh."—Skelton's Garlande of Laurel, 1523.