What 🙀 means
Shock or overwhelm, whatever its weary name says.
The mismatch has a history. In the 2009 proposal that brought Japanese mobile-carrier emoji into Unicode, this cat was the “anguished cat face,” paired with the human 😧. By release it had become weary cat, echoing 😩, and Unicode's design notes describe tiredness, not horror. Many platforms still draw it wide-eyed with paws on its cheeks, and the common shortcode scream_cat follows the picture.
So a full inbox can get the same gasp as startling news; the joke is making a small problem enormous. If you only mean “I'm worn out,” add those words.
Dramatic and suited to casual messages; not necessarily a joke.
Alone, it reads more scared than tired.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsDon't confuse it with
1Combination ideas
2Worth knowing
- The nine cat faces came into Unicode in 2010 from Japanese mobile-carrier emoji; this one traces to the KDDI (au) set, each cat a feline twin of a human expression.
Questions people ask
2Why is it called weary cat when it looks scared?
Because the name follows Unicode, not the drawing. It was first proposed as an anguished cat, then renamed after 😩 Weary Face. Many platforms drew a startled, scream-like cat anyway.
Is 🙀 the same as 😱?
Not quite. 😱 is officially fear; 🙀 is officially weariness, though both can look alarmed. Some readers find the cat lighter, so context decides.
How to type 🙀
:scream_cat:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.🙀Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.