Meaning
Said to someone who has unexpectedly gone silent when a reply is clearly expected — often teasingly, sometimes pointedly.
It implies the silence itself is suspicious or telling, as though the person has something to hide or has simply been caught off guard.
Origin
Despite several colorful theories, no origin has ever been confirmed. The most commonly repeated one claims ancient Egyptians cut out liars’ tongues and fed them to sacred cats, but Egyptologists have found no evidence this practice ever existed. A second theory points to the British and American navy’s cat-o’-nine-tails whip, imagining flogged sailors too traumatized to speak — but the whip struck the back, not the tongue, and naval flogging ended in 1879, just two years before the phrase’s first documented print appearance in 1881, leaving too little time for the association to form. A medieval-witchcraft theory fares no better, since the phrase simply doesn’t surface in records until centuries after the witch trials ended. The likeliest explanation may be the least dramatic: playful teasing about cats “stealing” things, applied by extension to a person’s voice.
Examples
You’ve been quiet for ten minutes — cat got your tongue?
I asked him twice if he broke the vase, but cat got his tongue, apparently.
Come on, tell us what happened! Cat got your tongue?
A: “So? What did she say?” B: “…” A: “Cat got your tongue?”
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Cat got your tongue?' mean?
Said to someone who has unexpectedly gone silent when a reply is clearly expected — often teasingly, sometimes pointedly.
It implies the silence itself is suspicious or telling, as though the person has something to hide or has simply been caught off guard.