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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

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

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

He was a stout boy with braces so heavily rubber-banded that his mouth looked like a cat’s cradle.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart