cat's-paw

Meaning

Noun

• A paw of a cat.
• Someone who acts in another's interest, unknowingly or through trickery.
• A minor breeze that ripples the surface of a body of water.
• A twisting variant of the lark's-foot hitch which forms two small bights used to hook a pair of tackles to a rope.
• Someone or something that comes down quickly upon a victim in the manner of a cat's paw.
• 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.
• A metal set of claws worn over the hand or wielded in the hand used to remove skin and flesh.
• A supervisor whose reliance on a subordinate's analysis is so complete as to render him or her liable for the subordinate's animus or other misconduct towards a third employee.
• Any of several species of North American freshwater mussels of the genus Epioblasma (genus), especially Epioblasma obliquata (species).
• Any of several species of Australian bloodworts of the genus Anigozanthos (species), especially Anigozanthos humilis (species).

Related

Similar words

• dupe, cat's-foot
• cat's claw
• rubber stamp
• kangaroo paw

Broader meaning words

• pawn, puppet, tool
• nail puller

Origin

• From cat + paw. In most senses, due to a resemblance of shape. In its senses as a pawn to another's interests or analysis, variant of earlier cat's-foot, derived from European tales of a monkey (attested as early as 1456 but sometimes misattributed to the 16th-century monkey of Pope Julius II) who used a sleeping puppy or cat's foot to rake hot chestnuts out of a fire, taken as a metaphor for rulers' ill use of their subjects. Now usually understood in light of Jean de La Fontaine's 1679 fable of the "The Monkey and the Cat" (sometimes misattributed to Aesop), in which the monkey fools the cat into removing the chestnuts through flattery and promises of shared reward. The cat removes the chestnuts one by one, burning his paw while the monkey eats each in turn. A maid then enters and chases them both away. La Fontaine's moral concludes that princes should not endure real losses for mere flattery from their king.