civet-cat
= civet 1. (Also applied in ridicule to a person perfumed with civet.)
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 585 Of the Zibeth, or Sivet-cat. 1635 Swan Spec. M. (1670) 415 The Zibet, or Civet cat, is a beast bigger than any cat and lesser than a Badger. 1738 Pope Epil. Sat. ii. 183 All your courtly civet-cats can vent, Perfume to you, to me is excrement. 1770 Gray Corr. w. Nicholls (1843) 113 Are her subjects all civet-cats and musk-deer? 1813 Milburn Orient. Comm. I. 104 Civet..is produced by an animal called the civet cat. |