• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “to get a cat.” Means to freak out, to go crazy, to lose one’s mind — used when someone becomes extremely agitated, panicked, or irrational.

  Vocabulary

  • dostawać — to get / to receive (imperfective)
  • kot — cat

  Grammar note

  'Kota' is the accusative of 'kot' — direct object of 'dostawać'. The perfective form is 'dostać kota'.

  Cultural context

  The origin is unclear but the expression is very widely used. Similar in feel to the English 'to have a fit' or 'to lose it'.

  Beginner

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