herd cats
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to manage or organize a group of people who are difficult to control
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
quản lý hoặc tổ chức một nhóm người khó kiểm soát
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to gather and control cats
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The teacher struggled to herd cats on the field trip
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “herd cats” mean?
to manage or organize a group of people who are difficult to control Literally: to gather and control cats
Is “herd cats” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.