| 释义 |
cat's ˈpaw, ˈcat's-paw
1. The paw of a cat; fig. that which comes down like the paw of a cat upon its victim.
1821Keats Isabel xvii, These Florentines..In hungry pride and gainful cowardice..Quick cat's-paws on the generous stray-away.
2. A person used as a tool by another to accomplish a purpose; see the earlier cat's-foot.
[1657M. Hawke Killing is Murder, These he useth as the Monkey did the Cat's paw to scrape the nuts out of the fire.] 1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Tool, cat's paw. 1817in Churchyard's Chippes 165 note, Bothwell was merely the cat's-paw of Murray, Morton, and Maitland. 1837Richardson s.v. Cat, Cat's-paw, common in vulgar speech, but not in writing. 1877Mrs. Forrester Mignon I. 105, I am not going to be made a cat's paw of. 1883American VI. 245 Making themselves mere catspaws to secure chestnuts for those publishers.
3. Naut. A slight and local breeze, which shows itself by rippling the surface of the sea.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Cats-paw, a light air of wind perceived..by the impression made on the surface of the sea, which it sweeps very lightly, and then decays. 1835Marryat Jac. Faithf. xxxix, Cat's-paws of wind, as they call them, flew across the water here and there, ruffling its smooth surface. 1851Longfellow Gol. Leg. v. At Sea, Sudden flaws Struck the sea with their cat's-paws.
4. Naut. ‘A twisting hitch, made in the bight of a rope, so as to induce two small bights, in order to hook a tackle on them both’ (Smyth).
1794[implied in vb., q.v.]. 1840R. Dana Bef. Mast xxxiii. 125 When the mate came to shake the catspaw out of the down-haul. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 34 Make a cat's-paw in the fall of the luff.
▸ U.S. A tool for prying out nails, consisting of a handle at right angles to a blade with a V-shaped notch.
1954Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 10 Nov. 321/2 Filed Dec. 13, 1952. Cat's Paw. For Hand Tools for Pulling Nails and Spikes. 1963Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Daily Northwestern 25 May 4/8 The list of missing tools includes..two catspaw nail pullers. 1998Indianapolis Star 25 Jan. h7/5 A screw extractor will work; so will a cat's paw, designed to grab under the head of a nail and allow it to be pulled out. |