so called, from the scratches they leave on the skin, like the claws of a cat.
A Cat is also the name for a tackle or combination of pulleys, to suspend the anchor at the cat's-head of a ship.
Cat-harping is the name for a purchase of ropes employed to brace in the shrouds of the lower masts behind their yards.
The Cat-fall is the name of a rope employed upon the Cat-head. Two little holes astern, above the Gun-room ports, are called Cat-holes.
A Cat's-paw is a particular turn in the bight of a rope made to hook a tackle in; and the light air perceived in a calm by a rippling on the surface of the water, is known by the same name.
A kind of double tripod with six feet, intended to hold a plate before the fire and so constructed that, in whatever position it is placed, three of the legs rest on the ground, is called a Cat, from the belief that however a Cat may be thrown, she always falls on her feet.
Cat-salt is a name given by our salt-workers to a very beautifully granulated kind of common salt.
Cat's-eye or Sun-stone of the Turks is a kind of gem found chiefly in Siberia. It is very hard and semi-transparent, and has different points from
