cat and mouse

Related to cat and mouse: Tom and Jerry

cat and mouse

1. A phrase used to describe the suspenseful relationship between one being pursued and the pursuer. We've been hiding out here for days, and I can't handle this cat and mouse game any longer—I'm calling the police!
2. A phrase that describes how one plays with or teases someone before turning violent or vicious, likened to the way in which a cat toys with a mouse before killing it. If we have any hopes of getting the prisoner to crack, we need to play a cat and mouse game now, in the early stages of the interrogation.
3. A game in which children stand in a circle and raise their arms to let one player into the middle. Then, they lower their arms to keep out a second player, who is chasing the first. Let's play cat and mouse! I'll go first—everybody else, circle up!
See also: and, cat, mouse
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

(play) cat and ˈmouse (with somebody)

(informal) (keep somebody) in a state of uncertainty, being sometimes kind, sometimes cruel: The police were playing cat and mouse with him; letting him feel safe in the hope that he would make a mistake and then they could arrest him. The authorities have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the protestors.
This expression refers to the way a cat plays with a mouse before killing it.
See also: and, cat, mouse
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

cat and mouse, game of/to play

Toying with a helpless opponent or victim. The cat, ready to pounce, was recorded by Jonathan Swift (“She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse”). The cat-mouse analogy most often has been applied to authorities who may do as they wish with those in their power.
See also: and, cat, game, of, play
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • cat and mouse, game of/to play
  • play cat and mouse
  • play cat and mouse with
  • eggs is eggs
  • (as) sure as eggs (is eggs)
  • 57
  • Heinz
  • Heinz 57
  • Heinz 57 (variety)
  • Heinz 57 variety
References in periodicals archive
CAT And Mouse explores the lives of those caught up in the Holocaust through the eyes of a child.
Cat And Mouse follows Chaim's journey from his family home, to the Warsaw Ghetto and the death camps of Auschwitz, Belsen and Terezin.
Holocaust through a child's eyes; Theatre Review
From watching the TV cat and mouse cartoons, you would think the two animals sharing the same house would be forever at each other's throats.
Gemma said: "It's our own little cat and mouse story.
When the cat's at home, the mouse will play; It's a Tom and Jerry tale with a difference
Written and directed by Julia Smith, Cat and Mouse has been put together by citybased Imagineer Productions and provides an unsettling visual exploration of the lives of those children - represented as mice - who were caught up in the horror of the Final Solution.
City pupils to mark horror of the Holocaust; MEMORIAL: Youngsters join professionals in drama
PIRATE mice are plaguing HMS Belfast this May Day in a children's event called Play Cat and Mouse running from April 22 to May 2.
A plague of pirate mice; MAGICAL MAY DAYS