A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

Note:
Neither expression correlates in meaning with the phrase
when one’s ship comes home
— when one comes into money:
The other guests on our table all had cabins on the 8th deck.
Maybe when “my ship comes home”— when I become rich
I’ll be able to afford a cabin right up high…
whip one’s weight in wild cats • whip the cat
whip one’s weight in wild cats —(U.S. sl.) be able to fight
vigorously; defeat a powerful opponent : I was to get
acquainted with Alta Ashbury, win her confidence, let her feel
that I was capable of whipping my weight in wild cats.
whip the cat—(sl.)
1
. (U.S. dated) work as an itinerant tailor,
carpenter, etc.: The pioneer shoemaker was Henry Demoney,
who was one of the old-fashioned eccentricities who “whipped
the cat.” 2. (Austral.) lament over smth.; reproach oneself: It
was no use whipping the cat about it now, Morris pointed
out. 3. (Austral.) take one’s frustration out on an innocent
person: If there’s anything wants doing you’ve only got to ask
Macy. And he makes light of it, too. No whipping the cat:
no setting himself up as a little tin god.
whipping boy • whipping Tom
whipping boy —
1
. (UK hist.) a boy educated with a prince
and punished in his stead: Sir Mungo had been attached to
Court in the capacity of whipping-boy to King James the
Sixth. 2. a scapegoat: The choice of agents is a difficult matter
for you have to choose persons for whose faults you are to be
punished; to whom you are to be the whipping-boy.
whipping Tom —(UK hist.) a person who whips others: Rit-
ual beating in commemoration of ritual murder is known in
many places. Until 
1
845 the Whipping Toms plied their whips
freely in the streets of Leicester in commemoration of the mas-
sacre of the Danes.