cat melodeon

adjective

Terrible, appalling; of very poor quality.

Meanings

adjective

alternative catmalogen · alternative cat malogen · alternative cat melodium

  1. IrelandinformalTerrible, appalling; of very poor quality.

    We're fed up of festivals and funerals and Munster Finals with backs that were cat melodeon.

    1997, Michael Coady, “The Longest Puck”, in All Souls, Gallery Press, →ISBN, page 65
    2 more examples

    Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) pointed out that half of West Cork doesn’t have phone coverage either, and that the situation with broadband was ‘cat melodeon’.

    2016 April 18, “Broadband service is ‘cat melodeon'”, in The Southern Star

    I'm going to do something cat-melodeon wrong and say you did it and everyone will believe me.

    2019, Conor Bowman, chapter 11, in Hughie Mittman's Fear of Lawnmowers, Hachette UK, →ISBN
  2. IrelandinformalCacophonous; raucous.

    2021 Christy Moore and Wally Page, "Zozimus & Zimmerman" The lights went down and the crowd went cat melodeon We were all revved up and ready to engage Having hitch hiked all the way from Minnesota Zimmerman was there before us on the stage

Origin

Compare cat (“terrible”) and cat's melody. Ciaran Carson suggests the influence of Irish cat marbh or cat mara; literally "dead cat" or "sea cat", figuratively "calamity".

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

cat melodeon. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cat%20melodeon

MLA

“cat melodeon.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cat%20melodeon. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cat melodeon,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cat%20melodeon.

Source: cat melodeon on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.