2847: More than One Way to Skin a Cat Oct 6, 2024

The phrase “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” is pretty gruesome sounding, prompting some like PETA to put forward a variation (“...feed a cat”) but beyond that it also hard to imagine a context for it. In truth, while the exact nature of the phrase is uncertain, all the evidence would suggest it was literal in its conception. From the 17th and 18th centuries, there are a number of other related phrases, like “there are more ways to kill a dog than hanging” (1678). Likewise, the phrase in question was only one of many cat-related phrases of this type, including also more blunt phrases, and also with a second half including some actual means, more as just a template than a definitive phrase.

This has always meant “there is more than one solution to the problem” but Mark Twain wrote  in 1889 “she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, meaning simply that she was resourceful.

Researching this, are some myths out there that the usage has to do with actual cases of animal cruelty and in particular with records from 1832 House of Commons discussion on a bill concerning animal cruelty, but this instance could not be the origin as the phrase is known to predate it by more than a century.