a. slang, chiefly U.S. Also catawamptious. [A humorous formation, the origin of which is lost: the first part of the word was perhaps suggested by catamount, or ? by words in Gr. κατα-.] Fierce, unsparing, destructive. (A high-sounding word with no very definite meaning.)
1835. Essex Standard, 29 May, 1/4. This dreadfully catawampous state of things it appears is caused by the approaching election of the U. S. President.
1856. Househ. Words, XIII. 146. It had fallen a victim to the jaws of deadly alligator, or catawampous panther.
Hence Catawampously, Catawamptiously adv., ‘fiercely, eagerly. To be catawamptiously chawed up is to be completely demolished, utterly defeated’ (Bartlett, Dict. Amer.).
1834. Litchfield Enquirer, 6 Nov., 3/4. The Storer party have catawampously chewed us up.
1852. Lytton, My Novel, in Blackw. Mag., LXXI. 434. To be catawampously champed up [ed. 1853 chawed up] by a mercenary selfish cormorant of a capitalist.
1857. F. Douglass, Speech (Bartlett). To take to our heels before three hundred thousand slaveholders, for fear of being catawamptiously chawed up?
So also Catawampus sb., used vaguely for ‘fierce creature, vermin,’ or the like.
1874. M. Collins, Frances, I. 162. The catawampuses you see about harvest time—they fly quite pretty in the air, but, O my gracious, don’t they sting!
