Has the cat got your tongue

Origin

Picture the grim reality aboard a 19th-century British naval vessel, where silence was often imposed through harsh discipline. The infamous "cat o' nine tails," a cruel whip with nine knotted thongs, was a common instrument of punishment. After enduring a flogging, a sailor was frequently left so shocked and in such excruciating pain that they were rendered utterly speechless, unable to utter a single sound. This vivid imagery of the "cat" silencing someone so completely found its way into everyday language, evolving into a rhetorical question playfully posed to those who are unusually quiet, as if the cat had, quite literally, taken their tongue and left them without words.