cat's-paw

基本解释

It is easy for him to be used as a cat's paw of evil-doing.
他很容易就被人利用，成为别人为非作歹的工具。
Pictured above, the end of the Cat's Paw nebula was imaged from Mayall 4-Meter Telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA.
上面这张猫掌星云末端的影像是由美国亚利桑那州基特峰国家天文台上的4米口径马亚望远镜拍摄的。
blog.sina.com.cn
Resembling a huge paw print, the Cat's Paw Nebula is a star-formation region, with stars of close to 10 solar masses produced there in the past several million years.
猫掌星云看起来就像一个巨大的爪印，它是恒星形成区域，近几百万年间在猫掌星云里诞生的恒星具有近10个太阳的质量。

Not to put too fine a point on it, he acted as a cat's-paw for his boss, Punch Sulzberger, when the publisher got rid of his own more liberal cousin, John Oakes, as editor of the editorial page.
ECONOMIST: New York opinion-makers