What does "catsfoot" mean?

Synonym of cat's-paw: a foot of a cat; (figurative, obsolete) a person used unwittingly or through trickery by another.

What is a synonym for "catsfoot"?

Common synonyms include: cat's-paw, cudweed, ground ivy, ground-ivy, mountain cudweed.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Synonym of cat's-paw: a foot of a cat; (figurative, obsolete) a person used unwittingly or through trickery by another.
"...like the Monkey, that took the Cat's Foot to pull the Chesnut out of the Fire..."
2
Synonym of ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea).
"It is commonly called […] in English ground Iuie, Alehoofe, Gill creepe by ground, Tunehoofe, and Cats foote."
3
Synonym of mountain cudweed (Antennaria dioica).
"...an Infusion made with the Heads of White Poppies, Cat's-foot, Colt's-foot, and Maiden-hair."

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

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.