| 释义 |
idiomwhen the cat's away (the mice will play)used in order to say that when someone in authority is not there, people can enjoy themselves or do what they want:Mike was off today, it's been good - when the cat's away the mice will play.We ought to do a bit of work this afternoon, even though the cat's away.
when the cat's away (the mice will play)When the authorities are absent, people will break rules and do as they please. This proverb, which exists in numerous languages, appeared in several different forms in English in the seventeenth century. Thomas Heywood used it in A Woman Kill’d with Kindness (1607): “There’s an old proverb—when the cat’s away, the mouse may play.” Today it is often shortened. |