cat and mouse

noun

Also called cat and rat. a children's game in which players in a circle keep a player from moving into or out of the circle and permit a second player to move into or out of the circle to escape the pursuing first player.

Western U.S. tick-tack-toe(def 1).

Idioms for cat and mouse

play cat and mouse, to engage in a gamelike relationship in which evasion and pursuit are used: They played cat and mouse for a while before she consented to go out with him.

play cat and mouse with,

to toy or trifle with.
to use strategy on one's opponent, especially while waiting to strike: The detective played cat and mouse with the suspect.

Origin of cat and mouse

First recorded in 1910–15

Words nearby cat and mouse

casuist, casuistic, casuistry, casus belli, cat, cat and mouse, cat brier, cat burglar, cat cafe, cat cracker, cat distemper

Example sentences from the Web for cat and mouse

So Western governments are caught in a cat-and-mouse game and at times it is unclear who is the cat and who the mouse.

ISIS Has a Message. Do We? |Jamie Dettmer |December 8, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
He became suspicious and so began what he refers to as a “cat-and-mouse game” between him and his former agency.

How Models Get Robbed on the Runway |Jennifer Sky |May 7, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
The revelations in October began a game of cat-and-mouse between the Demon Killer and the police.

‘I Will Commit a Massacre’ |Jake Adelstein, Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky |February 25, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Meanwhile, I don't know what happens to the employees, who are the mouse in this cat-and-mouse game.

Counting Full Time Employees |Megan McArdle |January 18, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

Lipkin-Shahak was no stranger to the cat-and-mouse dynamic that has so often kept the Middle East in a chokehold.

Saying Goodbye To Lipkin-Shahak |Mira Sucharov |December 19, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
It was like playing a game of cat-and-mouse with him, Wilson Lamb, the cat.

Hooded Detective, Volume III No. 2, January, 1942 |Various
The cat-and-mouse game with the other sex is a good game; but I can play your head off at it.

Heartbreak House |George Bernard Shaw
It was a sort of defiance that he was throwing at me, an ultimatum that I should either end my cat-and-mouse game, or let him go.

The Tale Of Mr. Peter Brown - Chelsea Justice |V. Sackville West
Did it mean that, after all, he had been playing at cat-and-mouse with her, as she had at first feared?

The White Moll |Frank L. Packard
Evidently, he must play the cat-and-mouse act about the piles of supplies and machinery.

Panther Eye |Roy J. Snell