smile like a Cheshire cat

smile like a Cheshire cat

To grin very broadly and persistently, especially in a smug, mischievous, or self-satisfied manner. The term was popularized by the character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a cat with the ability to disappear whose wide smile would remain after the rest of it had vanished. I knew he had a prank planned for April Fools' Day when he arrived at work smiling like a Cheshire cat. My dad sat on the porch and smiled like a Cheshire cat as he watched me try to fix the engine all by myself, as I had insisted.

See also: cat, Cheshire, like, smile

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

smiling like a Cheshire cat

Fig. smiling very broadly. (Alludes to a grinning cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.) There he stood, smiling like a Cheshire cat, waiting for his weekly pay.

See also: cat, Cheshire, like, smile

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.