Other forms: tomcats
A tomcat is a male cat. A big tomcat, the neighbourhood tomcat, an unneutered tomcat.
An unneutered tom sprays to mark territory, roams widely and fights, which is most of the case for neutering. Tom on its own does the same job. The female is a queen, which surprises people. Note tomcat as a verb in American use, meaning to chase women; and that the name comes from a cat called Tom in a popular book of 1760.
1nountomcatA male cat.
“A big ginger tomcat yowled on the fence all night, looking for females.”
tomcat is a male animal.
Tom plus cat, popularised by an anonymous book of 1760 in which the male cat was named Tom. Before that the usual name was Gib.
From Tom + cat, popularised by The Life and Adventures of a Cat (1760), by an anonymous author, in which the male cat was called Tom.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire