cat's-paw

1. 1.

   a person used by another to gain an end

   Synonymsinstrumentpawn

   Broaderassistant
2. 2.

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

   Broaderhitch

Questions about cat's-paw

What does cat's-paw mean?

cat's-paw means "a person used by another to gain an end". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cat's-paw?

cat's-paw has 2 syllables: cat'-s-paw. The stress falls on "cat'".

What is another word for cat's-paw?

Close synonyms include instrument, pawn. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cat's-paw a common word?

cat's-paw is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.