A Scottish idiom for people or things that are unpredictable, tricky, and hard to manage — the human equivalent of livestock that won't stay in their pen. 'Kittle' means ticklish or difficult in Scots, and cattle were historically the ultimate test of patience. Together, kittle cattle perfectly captures that exasperated shrug when dealing with a group that refuses to cooperate, behave, or make any sense whatsoever.
The planning committee was kittle cattle from the start — nobody agreed on anything for three meetings straight.
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(Scotland) , unmanageable people or things.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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