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.

Synonyms

• advantage
• better
• bulge
• drop
• edge
• high ground
• inside track
• jump
• pull
• stead
• upper hand
• vantage
• whip hand

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

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

Picking third, the Cavs were in the catbird seat. —Chris Fedor, cleveland, 30 July 2021

Their continued inability to slay the Bengals knocks them from the conference's catbird seat. —Nate Davis, USA TODAY, 5 Dec. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

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