- 1公貓（尤指未結紮、會在外遊蕩打架的那種）
A tomcat is a male cat. Often it carries a picture with it: a big, rough, un-neutered male who wanders the neighbourhood at night, gets into fights, and comes home with a torn ear. That is why people also just say 'a tom' — 'is it a tom or a queen?' is how a cat breeder asks about sex, with 'queen' being the female. In ordinary talk most people simply say 'a male cat', and 'tomcat' sounds slightly old-fashioned or slightly . There is also a verb, 'to tomcat around', said of a man who moves from woman to woman — it is old slang, a bit , a bit , and you will meet it in songs and films more than in speech. One thing to keep separate: Apache Tomcat, the web server that programmers use, is a piece of software named after the animal. If you are reading a technical document and see 'Tomcat', it has nothing to do with cats at all.
組成Tom（男子名，代表『男的』）+ cat（貓）. The name spread from a 1760 book, The Life and Adventures of a Cat, whose male cat was called Tom — before that, English called a male cat a 'gib'.
同家族的字
- tomboysame Tom = 'boy, male'; a girl who plays like a boy
- tomfoolerysame Tom, used for 'an ordinary man' — here, a foolish one
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
tomcatnoun
- 1
A tom (male cat).
- 2
informalA promiscuous man.
- 3
An insect of the order Coleoptera referring to certain species of rove beetles, particularly in the genus Paederus, known for secreting a potent irritant, pederin, which can cause severe skin irritation and blistering when contacted.
tomcatverb
- 1
informalTo prowl for sexual gratification.
- He would not go roaming the streets tom-catting like Mr Schick.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。