be like a cat on hot bricks
be like a cat on hot bricks
To be anxious and unable to sit still or relax. A: "Why is Carrie pacing around the room?" B: "She's waiting for the doctor to call with her test results, so she's been like a cat on hot bricks all day."
like a cat on hot bricks
Also, like a cat on a hot tin roof. Restless or skittish, unable to remain still, as in Nervous about the lecture he had to give, David was like a cat on hot bricks. The first expression replaced a still earlier one, like a cat on a hot bake-stone, which appeared in John Ray's Proverbs (1678). The second was popularized as the title of Tennessee Williams's play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).
like a cat on hot bricks
orlike a cat on a hot tin roof
If you are like a cat on hot bricks or like a cat on a hot tin roof, you cannot keep still or relax because you are very nervous or impatient. Why are you shifting from one foot to the other like a cat on hot bricks? Meanwhile, Mr Richardson says he is like a cat on a hot tin roof as the anticipation builds. Note: `Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' is the title of a play by Tennessee Williams.