bell the cat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
We shall be told that the time has been equally shared between the three parties, but there are many ways of belling the cat, and the timing of the viewpoints and the batting order can achieve the results they intend.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “bell the cat” mean?
to take a risk to deal with a problem Literally: put a bell on a cat
Is “bell the cat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.