Word.ws English Dictionary

cat's paw

cat's paw is the alternative form of cat's-paw.

Meaning of cat's-paw

Noun

cat's-paw (plural cat's-paws or cats'-paws)

  1. A paw of a cat.
  2. (figuratively) Someone who acts in another's interest, (properly) unknowingly or through trickery.
    • To take the Cat by the foote, and therewith rake the coales out of the Ouen.1622, Mateo Alemán, translated by James Mabbe, The Rogue, volume II, page 167
    Synonyms:
    tool, dupe
  3. A minor breeze that ripples the surface of a body of water.
    • Cats-paw, a light air of wind perceived... by the impression made on the surface of the sea, which it sweeps very lightly, and then decays.1769, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine
  4. A twisting variant of the lark's-foot hitch which forms two small bights used to hook a pair of tackles to a rope.
    • ...when the mate came to shake the catspaw out of the down-haul...1840, Richard Henry Dana, chapter XXXIII, in Two Years Before the Mast, page 125
  5. (figuratively, uncommon) Someone or something that comes down quickly upon a victim in the manner of a cat's paw.
    • [T]hese Florentines [...] / In hungry pride and gainful cowardice, / [...] / Quick cat's-paws on the generous stray-away.1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC...
  6. (US) A small crowbar with a handle at a right angle to a blade with a V-shaped notch, principally used by carpenters to remove nails.
    • Filed Dec. 13, 1952. Cat's Paw. For Hand Tools for Pulling Nails and Spikes.1954 November 10, U.S. Patent Office, Official Gazette, page 321

See all 10 meanings of cat's-paw

Forms of cat's paw

pluralcat's paws
pluralcats' paws

Questions about cat's paw

What is cat's paw the alternative form of?
Cat's paw is the alternative form of cat's-paw.

Words near cat's paw in the dictionary

  1. cat's love
  2. cat's meat
  3. cat's melodies
  4. cat's melody
  5. cat's meow
  6. cat's paw
  7. cat's paws
  8. cat's silver
  9. cat's tongue
  10. cat's water
  11. cat's whisker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cat's paw (page history and authors); cat's-paw (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cat's paw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cat%27s_paw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.