English

Noun

not enough room to swing a cat ‎(uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Very little space (available) (of a very small room).
   • 1665, Richard Kephale Medela Pestilentiae^[2]

     They had not space enough (according to the vulgar saying) to swing a Cat in.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII:

     My own apartment, to take a case in point, was a sort of hermit's cell in which one would have been hard put to it to swing a cat, even a smaller one than Augustus, not of course that one often wants to do much cat-swinging.

Usage notes

Not widely used in 21st century American English.

Synonyms

• confined, cramped, tiny

Translations

References

1. ↑ For example, the cover of Not enough room to swing a cat: naval slang and its everyday usage, 2008, Martin Robson, features a cat-o’-nine-tails
2. 1 2 “No room to swing a cat”, The Phrase Finder, Gary Martin.