cat's-foot

English

Etymology

From cat's +‎ foot. For its obsolete figurative sense, see cat's-paw.

Noun

cat's-foot

1. Synonym of cat's-paw: a foot of a cat; (figurative, obsolete) a person used unwittingly or through trickery by another.
   • c. 1661, Argyle's Last Will in The Harleian Miscellany, Vol. VIII, p. 30:

     ...like the Monkey, that took the Cat's Foot to pull the Chesnut out of the Fire...

2. Synonym of ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea).
   • 1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Ground Iuie, or Alefoot”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book II, page 705:

     It is commonly called […] in English ground Iuie, Alehoofe, Gill creepe by ground, Tunehoofe, and Cats foote.

3. Synonym of mountain cudweed (Antennaria dioica).
   • 1739, Henri François Le Dran, translated by John Sparrow, Observations in Surgery, page 119:

     ...an Infusion made with the Heads of White Poppies, Cat's-foot, Colt's-foot, and Maiden-hair.

References

• "cat's-foot, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anagrams

• softcoat