Pussycat

A female cat is technically a queen and not a pussycat. In early times, people referred to any cat as a pussycat. With the advance of vulgarity, people began to connect pussycat to mean female cat. Linguists tell us that the old Germanic word puss referred to the female body's sexual area, so the word hasn't changed much. It is anyone's guess how the word came to be connected with cats!

Catty

People exchange slurs and snide remarks about someone and someone interjects with, "meow!" Translation...catty. The dictionary has several different meaning for the word catty, such as stealthy, aloof or agile. The usual meaning is, "slyly spiteful." A cat has no ability to gossip or criticize!

Kitttenish

Kittens really are playful and frisky, hence the word...kittenish.

Scaredy Cat

A dog is more likely to attack something bigger than itself than a cat is. A cat will attack things smaller than itself such as a mouse, but if faced with a bigger attacker, they don't lie down and whimper. A cat's view is more pragmatic, that is: kill small things, flee the big if possible, fight off the big ones if necessary and do gown fighting!

Cat-and-Mouse

This old expression has a couple of meanings. Both are similar. Tormenting something before defeating it-the idea that cats play with their prey before killing it and pursuit with near capture and escapes before the final capture-as in "she liked to read  cat-and-mouse mystery novels."

Belling the cat

One of the many fables attributed to the Greek storyteller Aesop concerns a meeting of mice. They are concerned about a cat. One mouse has an ingenious idea: tie a bell around the cat's neck so they can hear the cat when it is coming. A wonderful idea but with a problem...which mouse is going to put the  bell on the cat? The job would be suicide. No one volunteered. The phrase belling the cat is still in use today. It refers to any idea that looks good on paper but is useless in the real world.