How many different ways are there to skin a cat?

Answer 1

[Q] From Mike Reilly: “Anything interesting in the origin of There’s more than one way to skin a cat?”

[A] To a lexicographer, all phrases are interesting, it’s just that some of them are more interesting than others ...

There are several versions of this saying, which suggests that there are always several ways to do something. Charles Kingsley used one old British form in Westward Ho! in 1855: “there are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream”. Other versions include “there are more ways of killing a dog than hanging him”, “there are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it with butter”, and “there are more ways of killing a dog than choking him with pudding”.

Mark Twain used your version in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889: “she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, that is, more than one way to get what she wanted. An earlier appearance is in ’Way down East; or, Portraitures of Yankee Life by Seba Smith of about 1854: “This is a money digging world of ours; and, as it is said, ‘there are more ways than one to skin a cat,’ so are there more ways than one of digging for money”. From the way he writes, the author clearly knew this to be a well-known existing proverbial saying. In fact, it is first recorded in John Ray’s collection of English proverbs as far back as 1678.

Some writers have pointed to its use in the southern states of the US in reference to catfish, often abbreviated to cat, a fish that is indeed usually skinned in preparing it for eating. However, it looks very much from the multiple versions of the saying, their wide distribution and their age, that this is just a local application of the proverb.

The version more than one way to skin a cat seems to have nothing directly to do with the American English term to skin a cat, which is to perform a type of gymnastic exercise, involving passing the feet and legs between the arms while hanging by the hands from a horizontal bar. However, its name may have been suggested by the action of turning an animal’s skin inside out as part of the process of removing it from the body.

Answer 2

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Answer 3

you could like stick a air hose under its skin and blow it up then yank the cat out of the skin, or like stick you rhand down its throat and grab its butt from the inside and pull.

And whoever said cat pot noodle deserevs a sweet reward

Answer 4

My cat has recently had 4 kittens (kittens do count don't they) I will get back to you. Sigh cat pot noodle for the next few days.

Answer 5

I'd assume 9, but I know there's 50 to leave your lover.

Answer 6

9 - one for each life

Answer 7

It depends on what dish you're cooking with it. Try Dick Fearnly-Whitingstall, he cooks up strange dishes.

Answer 8

that first answer is off of the internet somewhere and she is trying to look smart, i hate it when people put down answers that they copyed and pasted.

Answer 9

frankly i dont want to know...



p.s what kind of question is that??

Answer 10

four that I know of.