Dictionary

cat melodeon en · ADJ

Etymology

Compare cat (“terrible”) and cat's melody. Ciaran Carson suggests the influence of Irish cat marbh or cat mara; literally "dead cat" or "sea cat", figuratively "calamity".

Meanings

1. (Ireland, informal) Terrible, appalling; of very poor quality.
   • Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) pointed out that half of West Cork doesn’t have phone coverage either, and that the situation with broadband was ‘cat melodeon’. 2016 April 18, “Broadband service is ‘cat melodeon'”, in The Southern Star:
   • We're fed up of festivals and funerals and Munster Finals with backs that were cat melodeon. 1997, Michael Coady, “The Longest Puck”, in All Souls, Gallery Press, →ISBN, page 65:
   • I'm going to do something cat-melodeon wrong and say you did it and everyone will believe me. 2019, Conor Bowman, chapter 11, in Hughie Mittman's Fear of Lawnmowers, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
2. (Ireland, informal) Cacophonous; raucous.
   • 2021 Christy Moore and Wally Page, "Zozimus & Zimmerman" The lights went down and the crowd went cat melodeon We were all revved up and ready to engage Having hitch hiked all the way from Minnesota Zimmerman was there before us on the stage

Forms