# cat and mouse
## English
### Noun

cat and mouse (uncountable)
* 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.
** 1992 February 2, S.H. Chua, “Cars, Guns and Go-Go Chicks”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 28, page 7:The Lizard however has first to contend with Akechi, Japan's number-one detective, who has been hired by the jeweler to protect his possessions. Akechi and the Lizard match wits and play cat-and-mouse while flinging weighty epigrams on crime, romance and beauty at each other.
** 2007, Marvin J. Levine, Worker Rights and Labor Standards in Asia’s Four New Tigers:In practice, however, it is extremely difficult to form a new union and the unions are engaged in a constant game of cat and mouse with the Registrar.
** 2014, Alison Weir, The Marriage Game:She loved their daily rides, the easy banter, the flirtatious game of cat and mouse they played.
* 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.
** 2009, Judith C. Issette, Messenger of Death, page 34: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, Jarlon Magee, Travel in Fear:The payback for that would come in the form of a prolonged game of cat and mouse, finally culminating in a deadly game that he had perfected years earlier.
** 2014, Mark Derbyshire, New Worlds, page 30:She told of narrow escapes and a harried game of cat and mouse, until eventually she'd reached the darkened jungle in which Torys had found her.

#### Usage notes

* Often preceded by the verb play.

#### Coordinate terms

* cat and dog

#### See also

* see which way the cat jumps
* wait for the cat to jump

### Proper noun

cat and mouse
* 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.

### Verb

cat and mouse (third-person singular simple present cat and mouses, present participle cat and mousing, simple past and past participle cat and moused)
* Alternative form of cat-and-mouse
** 1931, John Collis Snaith, Indian Summer, page 39:And I've made up my mind not to be cat and moused any more.
** 1965, Anthony Boucher, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, page 193:She was attractive in her white uniform and Brown had cat and moused her for a long time without real enthusiasm.
** 1967, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means, Legislative History of H.R. 6950: 90th Congress, to Restore the Investment Credit and the Allowance of Accelerated Depreciation in the Case of Certain Real Property.:I am tired of being cat and moused, and for that reason I expect to vote against proposals which I am in favor of in principle, until we can have hearings on them, to determine whether they are economically viable and constitutionally sustainable.
** 1971, Chess Life & Review - Volume 26, page 441:...K-Rl 30 N-B6, the game would be over unless we have more cat and mousing by 30 .
** 2011, Max Hobby, Oshgomshee and the Princess Syleen:Careful not to draw deep blood, I cat and moused him for another moment or two as the audience stared in awe.