Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person used by another as a dupe or tool.
- noun A light breeze that ruffles small areas of a water surface.
- noun Nautical A knot made by twisting a section of rope to form two adjacent eyes through which a hook is passed, used in hoisting.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Naut:
- noun A light air perceived in a calm by a slight rippling of the surface of the water.
- noun A peculiar twist or hitch in the bight of a rope, made to hook a tackle on.
- noun One whom another makes use of to accomplish his designs; a person used by another to serve his purposes and to bear the consequences of his acts; a dupe: as, to make a person one's cat's-paw.
- noun In botany, same as
cat's-foot . - noun In bookbinding, the mark made on the covers or edges of a book by a sponge containing color or staining fluid.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A light transitory air which ruffles the surface of the water during a calm, or the ripples made by such a puff of air.
- noun A particular hitch or turn in the bight of a rope, into which a tackle may be hooked.
- noun A dupe; a tool; one who, or that which, is used by another as an instrument to a accomplish his purposes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun figuratively A
pawn ordupe ; somebody who has been unwittingly tricked into acting in another's interest. - noun A
knot of a certain kind resembling a lark’s-foothitch ; see cat's paw for more detailed information. - noun A
breeze thatruffles patches of a water surface. - noun A small
crowbar .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person used by another to gain an end
- noun a hitch in the middle of rope that has two eyes into which tackle can be hooked
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Informed with his will and wisdom, the Elsinore was no cat's-paw.
CHAPTER XXX 2010
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The question is, where do you put political muscle behind these sentiments so that the Saudis stop supporting Wahhabi Islam and al Qaeda and even the Palestinians, who've been used as a cat's-paw to direct pressure from these autocracies?
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President Jonathan F. Fanton says broadening the restrictions would turn the NEA into a censoring Obscenity Board, a conservative cat's-paw usurping the courts.
Fine Art Or Foul? 2008
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Israel was "doing the Lord's work," defending freedom against the "Iranian cat's-paw" of terrorism.
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Playing cat's-paw to the Administration, Congress has turned aside all demands for an independent investigation of Abu Ghraib and the other horrors -- and of the policies that led to them.
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Even if this book is propaganda, and Mother Teresa the cat's-paw of Vatican fundamentalists, there's something here beyond the muckraker's ken.
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For three years the spotted owl has been a cat's-paw in the battle over national forests, which lumber companies are allowed to log.
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JEFFREY: ... when they get a government on the ground in place that is stable, they're not going to want to be a cat's-paw of the Iranian regime.
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If you want my full and undivided attention-- I mean, if you want me rigidly alert like a German guard-dog-- simply compile an intriguing set of "dots" which include phrases like: "...he never realized he was being used as a cat's-paw in a conspiracy."
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If you want my full and undivided attention-- I mean, if you want me rigidly alert like a German guard-dog-- simply compile an intriguing set of "dots" which include phrases like: "...he never realized he was being used as a cat's-paw in a conspiracy."
Archive 2005-02-01 2005
yarb commented on the word cat's-paw
Citation on fluctuant.
July 30, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word cat's-paw
"6. In bookbinding, the mark made on the covers or edges of a book by a sponge containing color or staining fluid." --Century Dictionary
Uh... staining fluid?
September 28, 2010
dailyword commented on the word cat's-paw
There was a "Star Trek" episode named this.
September 12, 2012
MaryW commented on the word cat's-paw
In the sense of ripples on the water:
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 26February 10, 2019