In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat famously vanishes until only its grin remains.
Alice meets the cat first at the Duchess’s house and later in a tree near the Queen of Hearts’ croquet ground. The cat can appear and disappear at will, creating one of Wonderland’s most memorable contradictions: Alice observes that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat.
The character was popularised in Carroll’s 1865 novel, although the expression “grinning like a Cheshire cat” was already recorded in English print. Francis Grose’s 1788 dictionary defined it as someone who shows their teeth and gums while laughing. The phrase’s origin is uncertain; suggested explanations include Cheshire’s dairy farms and old inn signs depicting badly painted lions.
The disappearing grin is also why the Cheshire Cat became a symbol of something that has vanished while leaving behind a visible trace. Later adaptations, especially Disney’s 1951 animated film, made the image familiar worldwide.