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.

---

Cat's Cradle ² American  

noun

1. a novel (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut.

---

cat's cradle British  

noun

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

---

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

Although often compared to cat’s cradle, hei is more than a children’s game; it is a symbolic language.

From New York Times • Oct. 4, 2022

Krasnostein skips from subject to subject and returns, with the fluidity of a string wound for a game of cat’s cradle — in and out and back where she started.

From Washington Post • Mar. 11, 2022

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

Hilda said, and at last I felt I had touched a human string in the cat's cradle of her heart.

From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath