CAT'S-PAW • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Cat's-paw

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/kæts-pɔ/ Listen

noun

Cat's-paw n.

(Naut.)

(a)

A light transitory air which ruffles the surface of the water during a calm, or the ripples made by such a puff of air.

(b)

A particular hitch or turn in the bight of a rope, into which a tackle may be hooked.

A dupe; a tool; one who, or that which, is used by another as an instrument to a accomplish his purposes. Note: In this sense the term refers to the fable of the monkey using the cat's paw to draw the roasting chestnuts out of the fire.

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Etymology of 'Cat's-paw'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cat's-paw" Quotes from Famous Books

... Provisional Government was formed, and at the instigation of Riel, John Bruce, who was a mere cat's-paw, was declared President. Riel himself took the Secretaryship; and very promptly the ...

— The Story of Louis Riel: The Rebel Chief • Joseph Edmund Collins

... marriage. Although he is, as we might think, the person most interested in the result, he is permitted no say in the affair whatever. In fact, it is not his affair at all, but his father's. His hand is simply made a cat's-paw of. The matter is entirely a business transaction, entered into by the parent and conducted through regular marriage brokers. In it he plays only the part of a marionette. His revenge for being thus bartered out of what might be the better half of his life, he takes eventually ...

— The Soul of the Far East • Percival Lowell

... I answered; "it is little more than a cat's-paw at present, but it has the appearance ...

— A Middy in Command - A Tale of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood

... my fault, monsieur. No man could have laboured harder or planned better than I. I have been diligent, I have been clever. I have made my worst enemy my willing tool—I have made Monsieur's own son my cat's-paw. I have left no end loose, no contingency unprovided for—and I am ruined by a ...

— Helmet of Navarre • Bertha Runkle

... at me in amazement. The idea that I had discovered his attempt to make a cat's-paw of me was dawning upon him slowly, but knowing nothing of the transept, he could not account for my unexpected appearance. For once, at any rate, he had lost his nerve. I could see that he ...

— The Lost Ambassador - The Search For The Missing Delora • E. Phillips Oppenheim

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