[See TOM sb. 6.
In 1760 was published an anonymous work ‘The Life and Adventures of a Cat,’ which became very popular. The hero, a male or ‘ram’ cat, bore the name of Tom, and is commonly mentioned as ‘Tom the Cat,’ as ‘Tybert the Catte’ is in Caxton’s Reynard the Fox. Thus Tom became a favorite allusive name for a male cat (see quot. 1791 s.v. TOM sb. 6); and people said ‘this cat is a Tom’ or a ‘Tom cat.’]
A male cat.
[1760. Life & Adv. of a Cat, 11, Chap. iv. Tom the Cat is born of poor but honest parents. Ibid., 31. The single adventures of Tom the Cat only.]
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, II. vii. ¶ 7. The devil fetch that tom cat!
1825. Univ. Songster (title), The Tortoiseshell Tom-cat.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xii. It’s enough to make a Tom cat talk French grammar.
1881. J. Hawthorne, Fort. Fool, I. xxvii. A cur … unexpectedly confronted by a large tomcat.
