The cat in Wonderland that can disappear and leave only its grin is the Cheshire Cat. Lewis Carroll introduces this elusive character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, first published in 1865. Alice meets the cat at the Duchess’s house and later encounters it perched in a tree near the Queen of Hearts’ croquet ground.
The Cheshire Cat can appear and vanish at will, making it one of Wonderland’s most unsettling and philosophical figures. Its conversation often leaves Alice more puzzled than before, especially when it explains that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including itself. In one famous scene, the cat disappears gradually until only its grin remains. Alice observes that she has often seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat.
The expression “grinning like a Cheshire cat” predates Carroll’s novel. It appeared in Francis Grose’s 1788 dictionary of slang, although the phrase’s exact origin remains uncertain. Proposed explanations include Cheshire dairy cats, cat-shaped cheese, and badly painted lion signs on local inns.
The Dormouse, Mad Hatter, and March Hare belong to the tea-party episode, but none has the Cheshire Cat’s vanishing grin.