The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While most often celebrated in Alice-related contexts, the Cheshire Cat predates the 1865 novel and has transcended the context of literature and become enmeshed in popular culture, appearing in various forms of media, from political cartoons to television, as well as cross-disciplinary studies, from business to science. One of its distinguishing features is that from time to time its body disappears, the last thing visible being its iconic grin.
There are numerous theories about the origins of the phrase "grinning like a Cheshire Cat" in English history, including theory that the cat smiles because the county of Cheshire boast many dairy farms and the cat will have an endless supply of milk! Another theory is that the cheese from Cheshire is said to ‘grin’ (due to its shape). A more amusing theory is that the phrase comes from a local painter’s attempt to paint a rampant lion for a family crest. The attempt failed and the lion seemed to resemble a house cat, and so became a cat of Cheshire.
Its first appearance in literature was in the 18th century. A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue (1788) by Francis Grose contains the following entry: "CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of anyone who shows his teeth and gums in laughing."
The Cheshire Cat is now largely identified with the character of the same name in Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice first encounters the Cheshire Cat at the Duchess's house in her kitchen, and later on the branches of a tree, where it appears and disappears at will, and engages Alice in amusing but sometimes perplexing conversation. The cat sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice; but appears to cheer her when it appears suddenly at the Queen of Hearts' croquet field; and when sentenced to death, baffles everyone by having made its head appear without its body, sparking a debate between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether a disembodied head can indeed be beheaded. At one point, the cat disappears gradually until nothing is left but its grin, prompting Alice to remark that 'she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat'.
It is said that Carroll is may have visited St. Christopher's church in Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, which has a stone sculpture most closely resembling the pictorial cat in the book.
In the 1951 Disney animated film, Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat is depicted as an intelligent and mischievous character that sometimes helps Alice and sometimes gets her into trouble. He frequently sings the first verse of the Jabberwocky poem.
The phrase has also found application in the world of science.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.