Wiktionary
n. (alternative form of cat's-paw English)
Wikipedia
Cat's paw is a phrase derived from La Fontaine's fable, " The Monkey and the Cat", referring to a person used unwittingly or unwillingly by another to accomplish the other's own purpose.
Cat's paw or Catspaw may also refer to:
- The paw of a cat
200px|thumb|A cat's paw, for pulling nails. This one is about 8 inches long A ' cat's paw' (also sometimes called a cat's claw) is a standard carpenter's tool, consisting of a round or hexagonal bar that curves at one end to form a pointed, cup-shaped tip with a V-shaped cleft for gripping nailheads. Popular retail outlets currently call these a claw bar if it has a claw on each end, or a moulding bar if it has a claw on one end and a flat pry bar on the other. It essentially works as a small crowbar. To use the tool the user holds the tool's shank with one hand and drives the claw around a nailhead with a hammer. When the V is firmly seated around the nail's shank, the users pull the bar back to raise the head, then finishes pulling the nail with the hammer's claw. The cat's paw is well designed for demolition work, but because it tears up the wood around the nailhead, it should not be used for finish work.
Cat's Paw is a role-playing game adventure published by TSR in 1984 for the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game.
Usage examples of "cat's paw".
So there's the cat, batting at the glyph, and suddenly the glyph lunges forward, opens its jaws, wraps them around the cat's paw, and clamps down hard.
The frustrated orc growled and reversed its cut, but the mist became more corporeal and a powerful cat's paw batted the sword aside before it could gain any momentum.
Tsuyoshi lifted his arm and offered a hand signal, his fingers clenched like a cat's paw.
The gar roared, mouth agape, seeming to split the night air with the sound, and held him pinned like a mouse beneath a cat's paw.
Julian's fingers in her hair, light as the soft pat of a cat's paw.