1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. cat's-paw

Find the word definition

What is "cat's-paw"

Crossword clues for cat's-paw

cat's-paw
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cat's-paw

Cat's-paw \Cat's"-paw`\, n.

  1. (Naut.)

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

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

  2. 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.

Wiktionary
cat's-paw

n. 1 (lb en figuratively) A pawn or dupe; somebody who has been unwittingly tricked into acting in another's interest. 2 A knot of a certain kind resembling a lark’s-foot hitch; see Wikipedia:cat's paw (knot) for more detailed information. 3 A breeze that ruffles patches of a water surface. 4 A small crowbar.

WordNet
cat's-paw

  1. n. a person used by another to gain an end [syn: instrument, pawn]

  2. a hitch in the middle of rope that has two eyes into which tackle can be hooked

Usage examples of "cat's-paw".

Poor relation, unsatisfactory son, cat's-paw nephew, inept defender: better to retreat below, into the darkness.

Psellus might even have written the letters purporting to be from Anna Dalassena rather than tossing the task to some cat's-paw: capturing, then perverting, the voice of a great lady celebrated for her wisdom might have been a task he would enjoy.

That he was a cat's-paw for forces more powerful, less namable, more insidious than the Noisy Bridge Rod and Gun Club could imagine, she ought by rights to inform them: though she herself could not yet name those forces.