like a cat on a hot tin roof
be like a cat on a hot tin roof
To be anxious and unable to sit still or relax. A: "Why is Carrie pacing?" B: "She's waiting for the doctor to call with her test results, so she's been like a cat on a hot tin roof all day."
See also: cat, hot, like, on, roof, tin
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
like a cat on a hot tin roof (or on hot bricks)
very agitated, restless, or anxious.See also: cat, hot, like, on, roof, tin
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
cat on a hot tin roof, like a
Skittish, nervous, ill at ease. A similar analogy—“like a cat on a hot bake-stone”—appeared in John Ray’s Proverbs of 1678. It was later replaced by “like a cat on hot bricks,” still used in the mid-twentieth century, but Tennessee Williams preferred the more picturesque “hot tin roof ” for the title of his 1955 play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
See also: cat, hot, like, on, tin
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- be like a cat on a hot tin roof
- a cat on a hot tin roof
- cat on a hot tin roof
- be on edge
- on pins and needles
- on edge
- het
- crisis
- athlete
- be a (something) in the making