--- title: "dar el gatazo" translation: "To look good enough at a glance. To pass the eye test." type: "word" category: "expression" url: "https://consalsa.app/words/dar-el-gatazo" canonical: "https://consalsa.app/words/dar-el-gatazo" published: "2026-10-17" updated: "2026-10-17" author: "Andrey the Nomad" site: "ConSalsa.App" license: "https://consalsa.app/terms#ip" --- # dar el gatazo URL: https://consalsa.app/words/dar-el-gatazo Translation: To look good enough at a glance. To pass the eye test. Pronunciation: /daɾ el ɡaˈta.so/ Category: expression Region: Mexico Register: casual, everyday, faintly amused Variants: da el gatazo, dio el gatazo, para dar el gatazo Literal meaning: Gatazo is gato with -azo, which here is the showy, oversized version of a noun rather than a big animal. The likeliest relative is dar gato por liebre, though the link is not settled. Published: 2026-10-17 Quick answer: - Dar el gatazo means to look good enough at a glance - to pass the eye test without surviving inspection. - It is used about clothes, cars, résumés, apartments and people, and it is affectionate about things - a shade backhanded about a person. - Dar gato por liebre - passing a cat off as a hare - is the much older relative, and it is a real accusation. What it means: - Something looks the part from a distance. Not fake exactly, and not good exactly - adequate to the moment, which is often all that is required. - It is said about your own things as freely as about anybody else's, and that is what keeps it warm. Compré uno barato pero da el gatazo is a small satisfaction rather than a confession. Literal meaning: - Gatazo is gato with -azo. That ending is not only an augmentative in Spanish - it also builds blow-nouns like portazo and manotazo, and in idiom it makes the showy, oversized version of a thing. So gatazo is not literally a large animal, and reading it that way manufactures a mystery that is not there. - The phrase itself is well recorded as a mexicanismo. What is not settled is its relationship to the older expression. - That older one is dar gato por liebre - to give a cat instead of a hare - a long-attested Spanish expression for swindling somebody. The usual explanation is that a skinned cat and a skinned hare are hard to tell apart at a market stall: traditional, plausible, and not something lexicography has settled. The family resemblance to dar el gatazo is obvious; the direct line is an assumption. - The difference in force is worth keeping. Dar gato por liebre is fraud. Dar el gatazo is a jacket that looks fine from across the room, and nobody has been cheated. How Mexicans use it: - Clothes are the classic. A suit, a bag, a pair of shoes bought cheaply and doing the job - and the verdict is delivered with a certain pride rather than an apology. - It extends to anything judged on appearance under time pressure: a résumé that gets the interview, an apartment that photographs better than it lives, a car that looks fine until you drive it. - About people the commonest use is age. Todavía da el gatazo - said about somebody still looking good for their years - is probably where you will hear it most about a human being. - But about a person it is damning with faint praise, not a compliment. The shape it usually takes is no es guapa pero da el gatazo, and said to somebody about themselves it lands lukewarm at best. Warm about your own jacket, faintly backhanded about a face. - The negative fails a lower bar. No da el gatazo means it does not even manage the glance - though chafa is still the ruder thing to say, because it insults the object rather than reporting an impression. Common mistake: - Hearing it as an accusation. Nobody is being defrauded. If deception is what you mean, dar gato por liebre is the phrase, and it is a genuinely serious thing to say about a seller. - Using it where chafa belongs. Chafa judges the thing itself; dar el gatazo judges only how it survives a look. A phone can be deeply chafa and still da el gatazo, and Mexicans keep the two verdicts apart. Examples: - Está barato pero da el gatazo. — It's cheap but it looks the part. - Con ese saco das el gatazo. — That blazer will get you through. - El depa no da el gatazo ni en fotos. — The apartment doesn't even look good in photos. - Lo rentamos nada más para dar el gatazo. — We rented it just for appearances. - Todavía da el gatazo, ¿eh? — Still got it, right? Mini dialogue: A: ¿Y con qué vas a ir a la boda? B: Con el vestido azul, el que compré en el tianguis. A: ¿El de trescientos pesos? B: Ese. Da el gatazo, te lo juro. A: Pues sí, la verdad. De lejos ni se nota. FAQ: Q: What does dar el gatazo mean? A: To look good enough at a glance - to pass the eye test without surviving closer inspection. It is used about clothes, cars, apartments and résumés. Q: Is dar el gatazo an accusation? A: No. It is affectionate, and Mexicans use it about their own things constantly. If you mean somebody was actually cheated, that is dar gato por liebre. Q: What is the difference between dar el gatazo and chafa? A: Timing, and rudeness. Chafa is the verdict after inspection - badly made - and it is the harsher word, because it condemns the object. Dar el gatazo only reports how something survives a look. Both can be true at once. Q: What is dar gato por liebre? A: The much older relative - to pass a cat off as a hare, meaning to swindle somebody. It is a real accusation, unlike dar el gatazo. Q: Where does the cat come from? A: Not settled. The -azo here makes the showy version of a noun rather than a big animal, and the obvious relative is dar gato por liebre - but that link is an assumption, and the market-stall story behind it is traditional rather than documented. Q: Can you say it about a person? A: Yes, and it is faint praise rather than a compliment. No es guapa pero da el gatazo is the usual shape. Todavía da el gatazo, about somebody looking good for their age, is the friendliest version. Q: What does no da el gatazo mean? A: It does not even manage the glance. It fails a lower bar than chafa - but chafa is still the ruder thing to say out loud. Related words: chafa, chueco, fresa, naco, lambiscon