Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Proverbs 84. The proverb today is there's more than one way to skin a cat. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. This proverb basically means that there is more than one way to do a particular job or a particular task. Okay. Let's take a , let's continue here. The earliest citing, remember if we say citing, that's the first time they found it or they were able to find it in history when they searched back for it. So the earliest citing of this proverb comes from a short story called \"The Money Diggers.\" Okay. In 1840 by Seba Smith. Here is the quote from the book. \"There are more ways than one to skin a cat. So there are more ways than one of digging for money. \" So I guess it was a book where they were digging in the ground to find money or I don't know maybe gold or whatever it is that they were searching for. So anyway they were trying to say that there's more ways than one to do it. And you might often ask I know I often thought it was strange one any time I've heard this proverb. Why did they say to skin a cat you know, to skin means to cut the skin off an animal. I know we we like it back in the 1800s you hear that they used to skin bucks, you know maybe the you know we know they skinned minks. We know that their fur is very, very valuable. Why a cat ? We know American Indians you know used to skin buffalo. They used to use that for a lot of their clothes and their material. But a cat ? I mean did they eat the cat ? Why are they skinning the cat ? Was this skins hair or fur valuable ? I don't know it just it does seem a little strange when you think of it , but that's what it means. Okay. Let's continue. Let's take a look at some examples of how we might hear it used. All right. Example number one. I know they trained you to do it that way, but I can show you a shortcut. You know, a shortcut means an easier way or a faster way. You know there's more than one way to skin a cat. Yeah. This could be like a situation it may be somebody was being trained like in a factory on an assembly line or something and maybe somebody already trained him a little bit. And then another guy took over and maybe this new guy you know, did this job before he maybe he found an easier way to do it. So yeah, I know they told you this way but there's more than one way to skin a cat. You follow this way this way. I think is easier so this would be a typical way we might hear it used or let's look at number two. If this method doesn't work we have a plan B. Okay. Don't worry there's more than one way to skin a cat yeah maybe we have other ways that we could try. So that's it there's other ways we could possibly you know achieve this goal or achieve what you're trying to get. Okay anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
A2 US skin proverb citing trained shortcut fur English Tutor Nick P Proverbs (84) There's more Than One Way to Skin a Cat 9 0 anitawu12 posted on 2019/05/16 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary