karite kita neko lit. ‘a cat that has been borrowed (and brought over)’
Japanese idiom, everyday. Someone who feels uncomfortable and out of place in unfamiliar surroundings.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 借りてきた猫
?
Everyday and affectionate, often said about a child or a normally loud friend who goes silent in someone else’s home. It almost always comes with のよう or みたい: “借りてきた猫のようだ” (like a borrowed cat), “借りてきた猫みたいにおとなしい” (meek as a borrowed cat). It describes how someone behaves, quiet and on their best manners, more than how they feel.
借りてきた猫
in real sentences
-
この子は今日、借りてきた猫のようだ。
Kono ko wa kyō, karite kita neko no yō da.
This kid is as quiet as a borrowed cat today.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 借りてきた猫
come from?
None of the dictionaries I checked say where it comes from: Daijisen and Japanese Wiktionary only give the meaning. The picture does most of the work on its own, since a cat carried into a strange house tends to freeze and keep its head down.
Mistakes learners make with 借りてきた猫
Using it for someone who is out of their depth or can’t cope. Daijisen defines it as being “very meek, unlike your usual self”, so it’s about sudden good behavior, and it usually sounds a little amused.
Other Japanese idioms like 借りてきた猫
Spot a mistake in 借りてきた猫
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.