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

Dr Wickham, who holds a joint position with the Schools of Chemistry and Physics in the Faculty of Science, said: "The results are a bit like using Meccano, the children's engineering toy, or building a chain-like cat's cradle. But instead of macroscale metal or string, we use nanoscale biology to build robots with huge potential."

From Science Daily

Up in the bucket of the scissor lift, she maneuvered through her huge cat’s cradle, cinching lines and crocheting them with larger stitched panels to create dense splashes of color among the trees.

From New York Times

“The financial links between the Saudi royal family and the Trump family raise very serious issues, and when you factor in Jared Kushner’s financial interests, you are looking right at the cat’s cradle of financial entanglements,” Wyden told The Post last week.

From Washington Post

In the novel Cat’s Cradle, for instance, a dictator on the brink of death urges his people to embrace science over religion because “science is magic that works.”

From Science Magazine

For example, the invention the dying dictator in Cat’s Cradle refers to as “magic” is a crystalline compound that turns water to ice at room temperature.

From Science Magazine