Sekirov Dictionary

cat-and-mouse

verb 3
adjective 1
cat and mouse noun 3
forms 6

verb3

To engage in a game of cat and mouse.
•
To mutually monitor and challenge each other in an attempt to gain advantage.
- The Cinque Ports' navy had torn up and down the Channel harassing any marauding French; smugglers had cat-and-moused with revenue men over the marshes, into the woods. — 1975
•
To toy with (one's victim).
- But previously it has only cat-and-moused him, trying to achieve the delicate balance of injuring him and yet not having to eat him alive, he then being too big in popularity to swallow. — 1955

adjective1

•
suspenseful, involving alternating roles of attack and defence.
- From a cat-and-mouse sequence at a busy airport to a long car chase through Rome to a grand finale aboard a runaway train, each action scene tops the one before it. — 2023

cat and mouse noun3

•
A relationship in which two parties closely monitor and challenge one another in a suspicious or self-protective manner, often because each party is attempting to gain an advantage over the other.
- The Allied and the enemy submarine played a game of cat and mouse, checking up on each other's whereabouts and strategies.
- The hackers played a cat and mouse game with the system administrators: the hackers kept trying new tricks, and the system administrators kept mounting electronic defenses.
•
A form of attack in which the attacker toys with the victim by inflicting minor damage or letting the victim have futile hopes of escape before finally finishing the victim off.
- He was thinking how wonderful this game of cat and mouse was. He loved the game and the feeling of control he had over this poor innocent girl. — 2009
A children's game in which one player (the "cat") attempts to break through a ring of players to catch another player (the "mouse") in the centre.

forms

cat and moused · cat-and-moused · cat and mousing · cat-and-mousing · cat and mouses · cat-and-mouses

This dictionary works without the internet: on your phone · in Chrome