Wiktionary
a. (context idiomatic English) suspenseful, involving alternating roles of attack and defence. n. (alternative form of cat and mouse English)
Usage examples of "cat-and-mouse".
For a half hour, Sandy explained to me that he and the other Principals had concluded that they could not keep playing cat-and-mouse games with Saddam and they had decided that the only solution was to topple his regime.
But given the long cat-and-mouse history of American submarine espionage in the Barents Sea, senior Russian officials pointed the finger at an undersea hit-and-run collision with a U.
It seemed to be pacing rapidly back and forth before her, turning with an abruptness that suggested bafflement rather than some elephantine attempt at cat-and-mouse, almost as if it had run into a barrier even more invisible than itself.
It was fruitless, he realized, but it seemed Ligne had decided to play out this cat-and-mouse game to the bitter end.