Jump To:

• 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.

---

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

See Examples For:

cat's cradle Cat's Cradle

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

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

A chef will knead, twist and basically perform rope tricks with dough before stretching it into a cat’s cradle of bouncy strands.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2016

Selena pulled off her candy necklace and began playing with it, twisting it into a cat’s cradle.

From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez

As an example, he pointed to Irving Langmuir, a chemistry Nobel laureate, colleague of Vonnegut’s brother, and the inspiration for the amoral physicist in Cat’s Cradle.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 10, 2022

As in Cat’s Cradle or Catch-22, humanity is trapped within an ever more vicious circle created by its own skewed logic and techno-dependency.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 6, 2021

Before he began cooking, he recalls, he was “a very good hippie” and a founder of Cat’s Cradle, an influential local music club that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2020

Courtesy of the National Bureau of Standards n Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle, a central plot element is called ice-nine.

From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2013

So we talk about Vonnegut and I tell her that my favorite book of his is Cat’s Cradle.

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements