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• cat's cradle
  cat's cradle

  noun

  a children's game in which two players alternately stretch a looped string over their fingers in such a way as to produce different designs.
• Cat's Cradle
  Cat's Cradle

  noun

  a novel (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut.

cat's cradle

¹ American  

noun

1. a children's game in which two players alternately stretch a looped string over their fingers in such a way as to produce different designs.

2. the intricate design formed by the string in this game.

3. intricacy; complexity.

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Cat's Cradle ² American  

noun

1. a novel (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut.

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cat's cradle British  

noun

1. a game played by making intricate patterns with a loop of string between the fingers

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Etymology

Origin of cat's cradle

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

By the 1880s, a cat’s cradle of submerged telegraph lines wound around the globe.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026

The noodle master in the open kitchen stretches and twists the strings of dough as if mimicking a game of cat’s cradle.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 3, 2022

To pass the time, they played games like Miss Mary Mack and cat’s cradle and sang Jackson 5 tunes.

From New York Times • Nov. 7, 2020

No other series has propelled such a massive yet impeccably individualized cast through such an impossibly intricate cat’s cradle of story lines that honestly should have collapsed long ago but didn’t.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2019

Did she mean that she went to their houses and played cat’s cradle, or went out for walks with them, or to secret parties at night?

From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler