|
Cat And Mouse
Cat and mouse, often expressed as cat-and-mouse game, is an English-language idiom that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes." The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mouse", who, despite not being able to defeat the cat, is able to avoid capture. In extreme cases, the idiom may imply that the contest is never-ending. The term is derived from the hunting behavior of domestic cats, which often appear to "play" with prey by releasing it after capture. In colloquial usage, it has often been generalized to mean the advantage constantly shifts between the contestants, leading to an impasse or '' de facto'' stalemate. Furthermore, the term has been used to refer to the game hide-and-seek. See also * Arms race * Belling the Cat * " Cat and Mouse in Partnership", a Brothers Grimm fairytale * Cat play and toys * Red Queen's race * ''Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cat Hunting Mouse
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a pet and working cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. It is valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin. Its retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey species such as mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, and sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat intelligence is evident in their ability to adapt, learn through observation, and solve problems. Research has shown they possess strong memories, exhibit neuroplasticity, and display cognitive skills comparable t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idiom
An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic language, an idiomatic expression's meaning is different from the Literal and figurative language, literal meanings of each word inside it. Idioms occur frequently in all languages. In English language, English alone there are an estimated twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions. Some well known idioms in English are "spill the beans" (meaning "reveal secret information"), "it's raining cats and dogs" (meaning "it's raining intensely"), and "break a leg" (meaning "good luck"). Derivations Many idiomatic expressions were meant literally in their original use, but occasionally the attribution of the literal meaning changed and the phrase itself grew away from its original roots—typically leading to a folk etymology. For instance, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an list of companies of the United States by state, American company that publishes reference work, reference books and is mostly known for Webster's Dictionary, its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States. In 1831, George Merriam, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as G & C Merriam Co. in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1843, after Noah Webster died, the company bought the rights to ''Webster's Dictionary#Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, An American Dictionary of the English Language'' from Webster's estate. All Merriam-Webster dictionaries trace their lineage to this source. In 1964, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., acquired Merriam-Webster, Inc., as a subsidiary. The company adopted its current name, Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, in 1982. History 19th century In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, s:A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, ''A Compen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impasse
A bargaining impasse () occurs when the two sides negotiating an agreement are unable to reach an agreement and become deadlocked. An impasse is almost invariably mutually harmful, either as a result of direct action which may be taken such as a strike in employment negotiation or sanctions/military action in international relations, or simply due to the resulting delay in negotiating a mutually beneficial agreement. The word impasse may also refer to any situation in which no progress can be made. Impasses provide opportunities for problem solving to provide an insight that leads to progress. Impasse can provide a credible signal that a party's position is genuine and not merely an ambit claim. Impasse may also arise if parties suffer from self-serving bias. Most disputes arise in situations where facts are able to be interpreted in multiple ways, and if parties interpret the facts to their own benefit they may be unable to accept the opposing party's claim as reasonable. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hide-and-seek
Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chosen player (designated as being "it") counting to a predetermined number with eyes closed while the other players hide. After reaching this number, the player who is "it" calls "Ready or not, here I come!" or "Coming, ready or not!" and then attempts to locate all concealed players. The game can end in one of several ways. The most common way of ending is the player chosen as "it" locates all players; the player found first is the loser and is chosen to be "it" in the next game. The player found last is the winner. Another common variation has the seeker counting at "home base"; the hiders can either remain hidden or they can come out of hiding to race to home base; once they touch it, they are "safe" and cannot be tagged. The game is an example o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arms Race
An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more State (polity), states to have superior armed forces, concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and the aim of superior military technology. Unlike a racing, sporting race, which constitutes a specific event with winning interpretable as the outcome of a singular project, arms races constitute spiralling systems of on-going and potentially open-ended behavior. The existing scholarly literature is divided as to whether arms races correlate with war. International-relations scholars explain arms races in terms of the security dilemma, engineering spiral models, states with Revisionist state, revisionist aims, and Deterrence theory, deterrence models. Examples Pre-First World War naval arms race From 1897 to 1914, a Anglo-German naval arms race, naval arms race between the United Kingdom and German Empire, Germany took place. Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belling The Cat
Belling the Cat is a fable also known under the titles The Bell and the Cat and The Mice in Council. In the story, a group of mice agree to attach a bell to a cat's neck to warn of its approach in the future, but they fail to find a volunteer to perform the job. The term has become an idiom describing a group of persons, each agreeing to perform an impossibly difficult task under the misapprehension that someone else will be chosen to run the risks and endure the hardship of actual accomplishment. Although often attributed to Aesop, it was not recorded before the Middle Ages and has been confused with the quite different fable of Classical origin titled The Cat and the Mice. In the classificatory system established for the fables by Perry Index, B. E. Perry, it is numbered 613, which is reserved for Mediaeval attributions outside the Aesopic canon. Synopsis and idiomatic use The fable concerns a group of mice who debate plans to nullify the threat of a marauding cat. One of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cat And Mouse In Partnership
"Cat and Mouse in Partnership" () is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' (KHM 2). It is a story of Aarne-Thompson type 15 ("Stealing the Partner's Butter"). Origin A shorter version of the tale was included in the Brothers Grimm's manuscript collection of 1808, and published in the first edition of '' Kinder- und Hausmärchen'' in 1812. Their version is based upon an oral tradition communicated by Gretchen Wild (1787–1819) in Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d .... Plot A cat and a mouse, contrary to the custom of their kinds, become friends, such good friends that they decide to share a home. That they might have something to fall back on in time of need, they buy a pot of fat and hide it away in a nook of a churc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cat Play And Toys
Cat play and toys incorporates predatory games of "play aggression". Cats' behaviors when playing are similar to hunting behaviors. These activities allow kittens and younger cats to grow and acquire cognitive and motor skills, and to socialize with other cats. Cat play behavior can be either solitary (with toys or other objects) or social (with animals and people). They can play with a multitude of toys ranging from strings, to small furry toys resembling prey (e.g. mice), to plastic bags. Defining cat play Object play for cats is the use of inanimate objects by the animal to express play behaviour. In the case of pet domestic cats, humans normally provide them with purchased, human-made toys such as toy mice, bird or feather toys, or toy insects. These may be suspended from a string attached to a wooden or fishing-style rod designed to simulate lifelike activity in the toy, triggering the cat's predatory instincts – this game is known as catfishing. Cat play can be enriched ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Queen's Race
The Red Queen's race is an incident that appears in Lewis Carroll's ''Through the Looking-Glass'' and involves both the Red Queen, a representation of a Queen in chess, and Alice constantly running but remaining in the same spot. "Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" The Red Queen's race is often used to illustrate similar situations: * In evolutionary biology, to illustrate that sexual reproduction and the resulting genetic recombination may be just enough to allow individuals of a certain species to adapt to changes in their environment—see Red Queen hypothesis. * As an illustration of the relativistic effect that nothing can ever reach the spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
