look what the cat's dragged in

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

an unwelcome or disheveled person has arrived

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Một người không được chào đón hoặc quần áo rách nát đã đến

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a cat dragging something into a place
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Look what the cat's dragged in, you're covered in mud!

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 “look what the cat's dragged in” mean?

an unwelcome or disheveled person has arrived Literally: a cat dragging something into a place

Is “look what the cat's dragged in” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.