Definition of "cat's-paw" [cat's•-paw]

• A person used by another as a dupe or tool. (noun)
• A light breeze that ruffles small areas of a water surface. (noun)
• Nautical A knot made by twisting a section of rope to form two adjacent eyes through which a hook is passed, used in hoisting. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Informed with his will and wisdom, the Elsinore was no cat's-paw."
• "The question is, where do you put political muscle behind these sentiments so that the Saudis stop supporting Wahhabi Islam and al Qaeda and even the Palestinians, who've been used as a cat's-paw to direct pressure from these autocracies?"
• "Even if this book is propaganda, and Mother Teresa the cat's-paw of Vatican fundamentalists, there's something here beyond the muckraker's ken."