TO GRIN LIKE A CHESHIRE CAT [CHEWING GRAVEL, EATING CHEESE, or EVACUATING BONES, is sometimes added], phr. (common).—To laugh broadly—to ‘laugh all over one’s face.’ Used disparagingly. [Origin unknown.]
1782. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), To the Ship, in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 424. Lo, like a CHESHIRE CAT our court will GRIN?
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, ch. xxiv. In fact, Mr. Newcome says to Mr. Pendennis, in his droll, humourous way, ‘that woman grins like a CHESHIRE CAT!’ Who was the naturalist who first discovered that peculiarity of the cats in Cheshire?
1859. Letter from EDWARD S. TAYLOR to John Camden Hotten, 22 Dec. CHESHIRE CAT EATING CHEESE—I have always heard ‘evacuating bones,’ which if less decent is more expressive.
1866. DODGSON (‘Lewis Carroll’), Alice in Wonderland, ch. viii.
