cat's-paw

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Naut:
2. n. A light air perceived in a calm by a slight rippling of the surface of the water.
3. n. A peculiar twist or hitch in the bight of a rope, made to hook a tackle on. When the mate came to shake the catspaw out of the downhaul, and we began to boom-end the sail, it shook the ship to her center. R. H. Dana, Jr., Before the Mast, p. 387.
4. n. One whom another makes use of to accomplish his designs; a person used by another to serve his purposes and to bear the consequences of his acts; a dupe: as, to make a person one's cat's-paw. An allusion to the story of the monkey which, to save its own paw, used the paw of the cat to draw the roasted chestnuts out of the fire.
5. n. In botany, same as cat's-foot.
6. n. In bookbinding, the mark made on the covers or edges of a book by a sponge containing color or staining fluid.

Wiktionary

1. n. figuratively A pawn or dupe; somebody who has been unwittingly tricked into acting in another's interest.
2. n. A knot of a certain kind resembling a lark’s-foot hitch; see cat's paw for more detailed information.
3. n. A breeze that ruffles patches of a water surface.
4. n. A small crowbar.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A light transitory air which ruffles the surface of the water during a calm, or the ripples made by such a puff of air.
2. n. A particular hitch or turn in the bight of a rope, into which a tackle may be hooked.
3. n. A dupe; a tool; one who, or that which, is used by another as an instrument to a accomplish his purposes.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a person used by another to gain an end
2. n. a hitch in the middle of rope that has two eyes into which tackle can be hooked