as in pawn
one that is or can be used to further the purposes of another
these changes to the zoning laws have only confirmed for many that the town council has become the cat's-paw of local real estate developers
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cat's-paw
Noun
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They were treated like pawns in a JEA chess game, played and discarded.—
Mark Woods,
Florida Times-Union,
20 Feb. 2026 -
During that period, NYC received 220,000 migrants — because the Republican governor of Texas wanted to cruelly use them as political pawns by sending them here.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
16 Feb. 2026
Noun
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On Tuesday, tech startup Altruist announced a new tax planning feature for Hazel, the company’s AI tool.—
John Towfighi,
CNN Money,
16 Feb. 2026
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According to a report from Axios, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter Friday to ByteDance, accusing the company of distributing and reproducing its intellectual property through the new AI tool without permission.—
Dylan Butts,
CNBC,
16 Feb. 2026
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“Cat's-paw.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cat%27s-paw. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
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