Cat and Mouse Act
Preserved but no longer current.
To play cat and mouse with one is "to have him on a string"; while he is in your power to pretend constantly to let him go, but not actually to do so. During the Suffragette agitation at the beginning of the 20th century an Act was passed in 1912 with the object of rendering nugatory the tactics of imprisoned suffragettes who went on "hunger-strike.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Cat and Mouse Act” mean?
To play cat and mouse with one is "to have him on a string"; while he is in your power to pretend constantly to let him go, but not actually to do so. During the Suffragette agitation at the beginning of the 20th century an Act was passed in 1912 with the object of rendering nugatory the tactics of imprisoned suffragettes who went on "hunger-strike.
Is “Cat and Mouse Act” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.