"Cat's-paw" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... well-known and universally respected American citizen, had been turned, by means of those girls playing upon weaknesses she shuddered to think of but that she had reason to believe, from books she had studied and conversations she had reluctantly taken part in, were not altogether uncommon, into a cat's-paw of the German Government. ...
— Christopher and Columbus • Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim
... come to the place," he thought. "Perhaps the young fellow has been making a cat's-paw of me all the time, and has gone to church and got married, ha! ha! ha! that would be a joke; but by-the-bye it's out of canonical hours; he cannot ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston
... Father Smyth had cut me short; joined both his hands, and with the stretched forefinger tapping me on both hands, which were clenched as in prayer, addressed to me these identical remarkable words, "My dear fellow, the licence is a mere watchword of the day, and they make a cat's-paw of you." ...
— The Eureka Stockade • Carboni Raffaello
... just about seven o'clock in the evening. The boat was well out in the bay, between three and four miles from land, when John noticed a fresh "cat's-paw" of wind, just touching the water here and there. There was scarcely a cloud in the sky, and nothing whatever to suggest a squall. But as he looked again, a suspicious wisp of white water lifted suddenly ...
— Labrador Days - Tales of the Sea Toilers • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... addressed Mrs. Wilkins directly. She was sixty-five, and cared very little what sorts of women she happened to be with for a month, but if the women were to be mixed with men it was a different proposition altogether. She was not going to be made a cat's-paw of. She had not come out there to sanction by her presence what used in her day to be called fast behaviour. Nothing had been said at the interview in London about men; if there had been she would have declined, of course ...
— The Enchanted April • Elizabeth von Arnim
... their old shipmate, Snowball, had been blowing in the contrary direction to that in which the sailor intended to steer. This breeze, however, was not such as was to be looked for in that latitude. It was only a mere puff,—a cat's-paw,—in the midst of the calm that had continued for many days after the destruction of the slaver. It had lulled again on the same night in which the rafts had become united; and ever since,—during the three days they had been at work in the construction of the Catamaran,—the ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid
... of the attack, it now appeared that Loquia had lost many men killed; others who were wounded dropped on the way, and died on the route through Belinian. This loss so enraged Loquia (who considered that he had been only used as a cat's-paw), that he was determined not to return home empty-handed. He therefore revenged himself upon his allies, and captured about 2,000 head of cattle from Belinian, with which he returned to ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker
... aid &c 707; subservience, subserviency; mediation, intervention, medium, intermedium^, vehicle, hand; agency &c 170. minister, handmaid; midwife, accoucheur [Fr.], accoucheuse [Fr.], obstetrician; gobetween; cat's-paw; stepping-stone. opener &c 260; key; master key, passkey, latchkey; open sesame; passport, passe-partout, safe-conduct, password. instrument &c 633; expedient &c (plan) 626; means &c 632. V. subserve, minister, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... that you have been made a cat's-paw of, Janetta," she said. "Miss Adair was tired of school, and took the opportunity of making a to-do about you, so as to provoke the schoolmistress and get sent away. It does not matter to her, of course: she hasn't got her living to earn. And if you lose your teaching, and Miss Polehampton's ...
— A True Friend - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... at Amsterdam were far too busy to attend to my affairs. They were in the midst of equipping an armament to land on Irish shores and strike at England with the cat's-paw of an Irish rebellion. The place was full of Irishmen, some of whom honestly enough looked to see their country redeemed by Dutch saviours; others, hungry hangers-on, seeking what profit to themselves they could secure from the ...
— Kilgorman - A Story of Ireland in 1798 • Talbot Baines Reed |
