Definition of "cat-and-mouse" []

• Playfully or teasingly cruel, as in prolonging the pain or torment of another: the cat-and-mouse tactics of the interrogators. (adjective)
• Of or involving a suspenseful and sometimes alternating relation beween hunter and hunted: "another cat-and-mouse thriller” ( New York Times). (adjective)

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.

• "“I wanted to avoid that cat-and-mouse game,” says Veach."
• "One example: in a cat-and-mouse follow scene in a market, running divided from a bad guys, Tony Jarr jumps over a tables, stalls, as well as cars (!) with Jackies comic timing."
• "As budding romance turns to a game of psychotic cat-and-mouse, the jump scares escalates into scenes of horror that revulsed some moviegoers and thrilled others."