or catamountain, cat o’mountain, subs. (American).—A shrew. [Cf., CATAMARAN and Beaumont and Fletcher’s use of the word for a wild man from the mountains, itself a transferred sense of catamount = a leopard or panther.]
1647. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Custom of the Country, i., 1.
| Would any man of discretion venture such a gristle | |
| To the rude claws of such a CAT O’ MOUNTAIN? |
1835. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xii. She was a dreadful cross-grained woman, a real CATAMOUNT, as savage as a she-bear that has cubs.
