catbird seat

noun

: a position of great prominence or advantage

Did you know?

In the catbird seat was among the numerous folksy expressions that legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber used to delight listeners. Some say he invented the expression; others say that he dug it up from his Southern origins. But the truth may be far stranger than those rumors. In a 1942 short story titled "The Catbird Seat," James Thurber featured a character, Mrs. Barrows, who liked to use the phrase. Another character, Joey Hart, explained that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from Red Barber. To Red, according to Joey, sitting in the catbird seat meant 'sitting pretty,' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him. But, according to Barber's daughter, it was only after Barber read Thurber's story that he started using "in the catbird seat" himself.

Examples of catbird seat in a Sentence

your fluency in French should put you in the catbird seat for getting the Paris posting in the wake of the natural disaster, this obscure bureaucrat was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into the catbird seat

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Seems to me that the Giants are in the catbird seat. —

Grant Brisbee, The Athletic, 24 July 2024 William Byron, on the other hand, is in the catbird seat among Hendrick Motorsports drivers and sits with a seven-point cushion above the cutoff line. —

Marco Rubio, Newsweek, 2 Nov. 2024 Brat is what happens when an auteur is given a budget and the catbird seat in the boardroom. —

Hazlitt, 17 July 2024 The next guy to occupy the catbird seat is a name that might be familiar to New England football fans. —

Ben Volin, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Apr. 2022 See all Example Sentences for catbird seat