Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <word-choice>
Title: What is the verb for describing the movement of a cat's paw when it is trying to hit something with it?
Question: What is the verb for describing the movement of a cat's paw  when it is trying to hit something with it? Can I use the verb  punch ? For examle:   The cat is  punching  the decorations hanging from the Christmas tree.

Answers:
sents: text: In my experience the verb 'bat' is often used for this:
text: The cat is batting the decorations hanging from the Christmas tree.
text: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bat#Verb : (intransitive) To strike or swipe as though with a bat.
text: The cat batted at the toy.
text: As noted by others, pawing is also a descriptive choice.
text: I would recommend either verb over punching (typically a more forceful action which I associate more with humans than cats).
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/108343/Andy70109
score: 82
sents: text: The first word that came to my mind was swatting .
text: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swat#Verb , with the given example
text: The cat swatted at the feather.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/108346/jigglypuff
score: 40
sents: text: Punching involves bending the arm and striking out forcefully with the closed fist.
text: A cat can't make either of those movements in the way a man would.
text: A cat playing with a dangling object usually bats it sideways with its paw.
text: You could simply use pawing .
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/104866/Kate Bunting
score: 31
sents: text: One common term for this is batting or batting at .
text: When used with a cat (or other animal) this means hitting or tapping at something with the paw.
text: The cat is batting at the decorations hanging from the Christmas tree.
text: Describing a cat as "batting" or "batting at" another cat or an object means the cat is striking or tapping with its paw, but not so forcefully as to be a violent attack.
text: It usually suggests curiosity or playfulness rather than hostility.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/11195/barbecue
score: 14
sents: text: A very idiomatic way to say this is:
text: The cat swiped the object with its paw.
text: As also used in the example by:
text: Merriam Webster 1 : a strong sweeping blow //
text: a swipe of a paw Although less reliable, a simple search also yields many results showing it in real-life usage:
text: Thanks Google
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/None/
score: 9
sents: text: Taps
text: It might be an internet colloquialism, but I generally see this referred to as taps.
text: Many "cute cat videos" describe it as such, and there's even a subreddit devoted specifically to r/CatTaps .
text: It's worth noting that there is a fair amount of connotation depending on what kind of activity the cat (or other animal) is actually doing.
text: Tapping Moving the paw towards and away, possibly touching, usually tentative or investigative.
text: If the tap causes the target to move, might lead to Batting.
text: Batting
text: Connecting with a loosely hanging item with each (or most) attempts.
text: Each successful bat sends the item swinging.
text: Swiping More aggressive, and generally directed at another animal.
text: Hissing or growling might be involved.
text: Claws might be out.
text: This might be a followup to successfully batting an item.
text: Pawing
text: Generally an attempt to retrieve or receive something such as a partially obscured/covered item, or in/near a food bowl when they're trying to explain to their human that it's dinner time.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4887/aslum
score: 5
sents: text: I don't think to punch is the right verb here.
text: Take a look at its definition from Cambridge dictionary: to punch (verb): to hit forcefully with your fist.
text: She punched him in the face after he called her names.
text: As cats can't make a fist, I'd advise you not to use it.
text: Instead, I believe to beat would be a good choice. to beat (verb): to hit repeatedly.
text: The cat is beating the decorations hanging from the Christmas tree.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/87807/krobelusmeetsyndra
score: 1
sents: text: to slap : to hit someone or something with the flat part of the hand or other flat object
text: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatSlap/
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/80769/stackzebra
score: 0
sents: text: I agree with the upvoted answer that batting is the best word.
text: There is another word that works, though it may be a little too cute.
text: The word is boop or booping .
text: Here's an example from Reddit:
text: "Kitten boops himself" :
text: You can find many more examples online just searching for "cat boop."
text: If cute is what you're going for, it's a fine choice.
text: It's not in most dictionaries as it's more of an onomatopoeia.
text: I think the meaning is basically thinking of the noise that a button on, say, a cute robot would make.
text: Often it refers to the cat's nose (since that is button-like), but it is not restricted to noses.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/272/Justin
score: 0
sents: text: Swiping (to swipe), cats swipe at things.
text: Could also be: Jabbing Pawing Tapping Poking
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/108434/Dominic Ormston
score: 0
sents: text: nGrams reveals 'batted' to be the verb of choice (of those thus far presented) - but I think what we can conclude is that the reporting of the actions of cats has increased exponentially with the arrival of the internet... https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cat+swatted%2Ccat+swiped%2Ccat+batted%2C+cat+pawed&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccat%20swatted%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccat%20swiped%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccat%20batted%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccat%20pawed%3B%2Cc0
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/36616/Strawberry
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
In my experience the verb 'bat' is often used for this:  Describing a cat as "batting" or "batting at" another cat or an object means the cat is striking or tapping with its paw, but not so forcefully as to be a violent attack.
The following verbs may be used: "bat", "swat", "paw", "taps", "swipe", "boop", "jab", ‘poke" or "slap".