cat's-foot

Etymology

From cat + 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; (figuratively, 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. (botany) Synonym of ground ivy (N. glechoma).
   • 1597, John Gerard, The Herball, page 705:

     ...in English ground Iuie,... Tunehoofe, and Cats foote...

3. (botany) Synonym of mountain cudweed (A. dioica).
   • 1739, John Sparrow translating Henri François Le Dran as Observations in Surgery, p. 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.