A historical illustration of countryfolk and townsfolk catnapping with their pets.
A farrier taking a midday catnap.
From cat + nap. Named in reference to the feline habit of taking multiple, brief, and light naps throughout the day to conserve energy, rather than sleeping for one long, uninterrupted block.
Meanings
A brief, light sleep, usually during the daytime.
A toddler who is still having two day sleeps will generally have one good sleep and one catnap, and a toddler who is around three years of age and getting close to dropping her day sleep will catnap. 2010, Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: Toddler, page 117:
By 9 A.M., however, all but the most insomniac of the night owls were taking a catnap. 1963 August 19, Charlotte Curtis, “Newport Debut Revelry Carries Over to 2d Day”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
Besides, I reflected, Joe might easily have become a catnapper, as so many millions of other Americans had become since Sarah Perkins, during the campaign, had made it so widely known that although the incumbent President slept in a bed with the covers over him for three and sometimes four hours a night, she herself never slept at all except for the catnaps. 1965, The New Yorker, page 28:
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catnaps
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (16)
fa چاشتخواب (a brief, light sleep) · es sueñecito (a brief, light sleep) · ota اویقو (a brief, light sleep) · fo blundur (a brief, light sleep) · ru коро́ткий сон (a brief, light sleep) · pt soneca (a brief, light sleep) · el υπνάκος (a brief, light sleep) · tr tavşan uykusu (a brief, light sleep) · de Nickerchen (a brief, light sleep) · it pisolino (a brief, light sleep) · sv tupplur (a brief, light sleep) · es siestecita (a brief, light sleep) · mi moe kinikini (a brief, light sleep) · fi nokoset (a brief, light sleep) · no høneblund (a brief, light sleep) · bg дрямка (a brief, light sleep)
A historical illustration of countryfolk and townsfolk catnapping with their pets.
A farrier taking a midday catnap.
From cat + nap. Named in reference to the feline habit of taking multiple, brief, and light naps throughout the day to conserve energy, rather than sleeping for one long, uninterrupted block.
Meanings
(intransitive) To take a catnap (short sleep or nap).
A toddler who is still having two day sleeps will generally have one good sleep and one catnap, and a toddler who is around three years of age and getting close to dropping her day sleep will catnap. 2010, Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: Toddler, page 117:
mi moe kinikini (to take a short nap) · de schlummern (to take a short nap) · mi hāmoemoe (to take a short nap) · it fare un sonnellino (to take a short nap)
Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kattuz
Proto-West Germanic *kattu
Old English catt
Middle English cat
English cat
English -nap
English catnap
From cat + -nap.
Meanings
(transitive) To kidnap a cat.
Hellen Gravely: 'You ransacked my hotel, captured my staff with that strange vacuum of yours... And to top it all off, you catnapped my sweetie, my little darling... My precious Polterkitty!' 2019 October 30, Next Level Games, Luigi's Mansion 3, v1.4.0, Nintendo, level/area: Main Observation Room (15F: Master Suite):
But the jury was appalled that Amber had stepped over Mort's dead body to steal his cat, and moved by Trish's dignified and heartrending testimony about her suffering when Justine was catnapped. 2018, Elaine Viets, Catnapped!:
The man thought, if she refuses, I could catnap it early one Wednesday afternoon while she's dozing. Leave a bogus ransom note? 2002, Joseph Ashby Porter, “A Man Wanted to Buy a Cat”, in Touch Wood: Short Stories, page 12:
When you suspect your cat's up a tree because he was chased or now locked up in the parked car because someone conspired to catnap him (he is quite the personality), what economic scales could they employ to set ransom? 1990, Kalliope, page 40: