Bell the cat

Bell the cat

"Belling the cat" or "to bell the cat" is an English colloquialism that means to suggest or attempt to perform a difficult or impossible task. [ [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/To+bell+the+cat "To Bell the Cat"] thefreedictionary.com. Accessed November 9, 2007.] The phrase comes from the Aesop's Fable "The Mice in Council", in which a group of mice declare that the only way to avoid the dangerous cat is to tie a bell around its neck in order to give warning whenever it is near. One mouse then asks who will perform the dangerous task. The moral of the story, as commonly given, is that it is easy to suggest difficult (or impossible) solutions if the individual giving the solution is not the one who has to implement it.

Etymology

The phrase comes from Aesop's fable "The Mice in Council":

LONG ago, the mice had a general council to consider what measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the Cat. Some said this, and some said that; but at last a young mouse got up and said he had a proposal to make, which he thought would meet the case. “You will all agree,” said he, “that our chief danger consists in the sly and treacherous manner in which the enemy approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore, to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon round the neck of the Cat. By this means we should always know when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the neighbourhood.” This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: “That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?” The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said: “IT IS EASY TO PROPOSE IMPOSSIBLE REMEDIES.” [Æsop. "Fables", retold by Joseph Jacobs. Vol. XVII, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/17/1/.]

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • bell the cat — ► bell the cat take the danger of a shared enterprise upon oneself. [ORIGIN: an allusion to a fable in which the mice suggest hanging a bell around the cat s neck to have warning of its approach.] Main Entry: ↑bell …   English terms dictionary

  • bell the cat — To bell the cat is to perform a difficult or impossible task …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • bell the cat — verb take a risk; perform a daring act Who is going to bell the cat? • Hypernyms: ↑risk, ↑put on the line, ↑lay on the line • Verb Frames: Somebody s * * * phrasal …   Useful english dictionary

  • bell the cat — take the danger of a shared enterprise upon oneself. [an allusion to a fable in which the mice suggest hanging a bell around the cat s neck to have warning of its approach.] → bell …   English new terms dictionary

  • To bell the cat — cat cat (k[a^]t), n. [AS. cat; akin to D. & Dan. kat, Sw. katt, Icel. k[ o]ttr, G. katze, kater, Ir. cat, W. cath, Armor. kaz, LL. catus, Bisc. catua, NGr. ga ta, ga tos, Russ. & Pol. kot, Turk. kedi, Ar. qitt; of unknown origin. Cf. {Kitten}.] 1 …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bell the cat — Synonyms and related words: affront, beard, bite the bullet, brave, brazen, brazen out, confront, court danger, defy danger, face, face the music, face up, face up to, flirt with death, front, go for broke, meet, meet boldly, meet head on, play… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • bell the cat — do the dangerous thing, take the risk, face the danger with bravery …   English contemporary dictionary

  • bell the cat — verb To undertake a dangerous action in the service of a group …   Wiktionary

  • BELL-THE-CAT —    Archibald Douglas, Earl of Arran, so called from his offer to dispose by main force of an obnoxious favourite of the king, James III …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • bell the cat — phrasal to do a daring or risky deed …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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