<Li> Its first appearance in literature was in the 18th century . A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue (1788) by Francis Grose (The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, London) contains the following entry: "CHESHIRE CAT . He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of any one who shows his teeth and gums in laughing ." </Li> <Li> The phrase appears again in print in John Wolcot's pseudonymous Peter Pindar's Pair of Lyric Epistles (1792): "Lo, like a Cheshire cat our court will grin ." </Li> <Li> The phrase also appears in print in William Makepeace Thackeray's The Newcomes (1855) ("That woman grins like a Cheshire cat ."). </Li> <P> 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' . </P>

What is the meaning of the cheshire cat