Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
Synonym of catalytic converter (“chamber containing a finely divided platinum catalyst in which carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust are oxidized to carbon dioxide”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Southern-US, humorous, nonstandard, often
Qualifier: malapropism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: catalytic converter
Antonyms: none provided
History
From the similarity between catalytic and Cadillac (“brand of luxury automobile”), probably originally a mondegreen (“error arising from the mishearing of a phrase”) and used humorously to allude to the high cost of catalytic converters.
