whip the cat

Originally from reference to a prank played on country bumpkins, in which they were encouraged to show their strength by whipping a cat that was harnessed to a load that was too heavy for it. This led to the sense of attempting to get more than can be provided, and by extension, to practice extreme parsimony. From there, it possibly evolved to the other senses, which tend to reflect the connotations of poverty and/or uselessness.

whip the cat (third-person singular simple present whips the cat, present participle whipping the cat, simple past and past participle whipped the cat)

1. (idiomatic) To attempt to get work or money from someone who is too weak or poor to provide it.
   • 1816, Paulding, Letters, page 172:

     There was a terrible "whipping of the cat, " as it is called, on the day the notes became due. This whipping the cat is nothing more than a parcel of traders puffing at one another's heels . . . to borrow money.

   • 1917, Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates - Volume 83, page 2165:

     […] seeing that the Committee has already practically defeated the principle that any new business shall have any special exemption under this Bill, I do not propose to take up further time in “whipping the cat” on that question.

2. (UK, Australia, obsolete, idiomatic) To practice extreme parsimony.
   • 1850, James Fenimore Cooper, The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, page 152:

     He kept school within six miles of Cooperstown, on the Burlington road, whipping the cat, just as young Munro did!

   • 1901, Henry Lawson, Joe Wilson and his Mates:

     I "whipped the cat” a bit, the first twenty miles or so, but then, I thought, what did it matter? What was the use of grinding to save money until we were too old to enjoy it.

   • circa 1905, Anonymous Australian folk song, "The Ramble-eer":

     I've shanked across the Old Man Plain, after busting up a cheque, And "whipped the cat" once more again, though I haven't met it yet.

3. (Australia, New Zealand, idiomatic) To regret; to feel self-pity
   • 1947, The Feathered Shaft, page 31:

     I believe one of the members of our hunting section was lucky enough to get a subscription through before they stopped it. The rest of the members of the section have been "whipping the cat” because they left it too late

   • 1965, Western Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, page 2103:

     […] he will be whipping the cat he did not leave this line down to carry light traffic from the hills.

   • 1978, Helen Shaw, The Gipsies, and Other Stories, page 30:

     But whipping the cat she ever sold her house over here, the young man remarked.

   • 1983, John Meredith, Duke of the Outback: The Adventures of "a Shearer Named Tritton", page 56:

     When you're stoney broke and walking An' your tucker bag is flat, It will never get you nowhere If you start to whip the cat, For there aint no time for weepin' When you're on a hungry track,

   • 2019, Jeannie Gunn, We of the Never-Never:

     And then, as if to prove that we are not always on the drink, or “whipping the cat, or committing suicide,” that we can love and live for others besides self, Neaves' mate came down from the little rise beyond the sliprails, where he had spent his day carving a headstone out of a rough slab of wood that now stood at the head of our sick traveller's grave.

4. (idiomatic) To blame someone for something that is not their fault.
   • 1947, To you - Volumes 14-16, page 31:

     Whipping the cat may only increase our resentment and burn us up with anger. We may engage in combat with our neighbor until both are exhauste . Calling a truce and limping back under our own roof would not be peace.

   • 1973, John Greenway, Australia: the Last Frontier, page 227:

     When the work was over I'd to nurse the youngest child; Whenever I cracked a bit of a joke, the missus she would smile; The old fellow got jealous, looked like he'd murder me, And there he sat and whipped the cat, that cocky in Bungaree.

   • 1982, Terence Hanbury White, François Gallix, Letters to a Friend: The Correspondence Between T.H. White and L.J. Potts, page 137:

     In the end, meeting a mutual impasse, they adopt a policy of "whip the cat. " The farm labourer gets blamed for whatever goes wrong i.e. for everything.

5. (idiomatic) To get drunk.
   • 1878, George Herbert Gibson, Southerly Busters, Pennsylvania State University, page 68:

     I knew him lads when first he shipped,
     And this is certain, that
     Though William by the 'cat' was whipped,
     He never 'whipped the cat'!

   • 1952, Kent State University, Research Series - Issues 1-9, page 17:

     Presumably while Armin as Tutch is off “whipping the cat” ( getting drunk ) with the watermen, Blue John, his doubled part, arrives to entertain the wedding guests with his nurse and a boy.

   • 1962, Dymphna Cusack, Picnic Races, page 81:

     'What will they do when the Depression comes?'
     'There'll be some whipping the cat when it does.'

6. (US, dialect, dated, idiomatic) To go from house to house working by the day, as itinerant tailors and carpenters do.
   • 1835, John Donald Carrick, The Laird of Logan; Or, Wit of the West, page 166:

     The practice of "whipping the cat,” though gradually disappearing, is not altogether abandoned by the tailors in this district.

   • 1925, Benedict Fitzpatrick, Joseph Fulford Folsom, Edwin P. Conklin, The municipalities of Essex county, New Jersey, 1666-1924, page 84:

     I "whipped the cat" three months on the barrens — then I engaged to work for a merchant in Rome.

   • 1965, Richardson Little Wright, Hawkers and Walkers in Early America, page 100:

     When apprentices and lately indentured servants began to “whip the cat,” the shoemakers among them went from house to house making and repairing shoes.

   • 2016, Sorchia DuBois, Zoraida Grey and the Family Stones:

     My family has been dressmakers for the Logans since the days my great-great-great-granny whipped the cat for them in the 1800s.

7. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see whip,‎ cat.
   • 1958, Emil Leopold Jordan, Fun with Pets and Plants: How to Keep Them Healthy and Happy, page 22:

     Some recommend taking the dead bird away from the cat and whipping the cat.