For example: “Hey, Sarah, let’s have dinner together this weekend; what do you say?”“I’d love to, Jenny, but I’m just too busy with work.” “How about next weekend then?”“I already have plans.” “I guess the cat’s in the cradle. You may have also heard the saying “cat’s cradle.” Although it sounds very similar to “cat’s in the cradle,” it has a different meaning and a different origin. The new healthcare legislation is a baffling cat's cradle of regulations, requirements, and loopholes. The Word Counter is a dynamic online tool used for counting words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and pages in real time, along with spelling and grammar checking. 2 : something that is intricate, complicated, or elaborate a cat's cradle of red tape. 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? See more. See the full definition for cat's cradle in the English Language Learners Dictionary, More from Merriam-Webster on cat's cradle, Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for cat's cradle. What Does Discretion Is the Better Part of Valor Mean. Definition of cat's cradle in the Definitions.net dictionary. Actually, although Chapin added his own words before recording the song, the lyrics were taken from a poem written by his wife, which, as the song does, expressed the importance of a close father and son relationship and the difficulty that can arise in building and creating that dynamic in a world where a father is often hard at work outside of the home. Meaning of cat's cradle. A box-like shape which is made by from twisting a loop of string around their fingers. Although Vonnegut clearly intends for his readers to laugh while reading his book, Cat's Cradle is not merely a playful frolic through human foibles. 2. the intricate design formed by the string in this game. The phrase “cat’s in the cradle” is a classic idiom: Taken together, its words mean something entirely different than they would on their own—literally, a cat inside a baby’s cradle. Coincidentally, this is the game from where Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle gets its name. cat's cradle definition in English dictionary, cat's cradle meaning, synonyms, see also 'cradle',cradle cap',cradle snatcher',from the cradle to the grave'. cat's cradle definition: 1. in children's games, a special pattern or series of patterns made by wrapping string around the…. A daily challenge for crossword fanatics. cat's cradle in American English. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a prolific and genre-bending American author. I currently reside in Asheville, North Carolina. “Cat's cradle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cat%27s%20cradle. In a version of that tale, a cat saves a young child from a flood by traveling with it through the floodwaters in its cradle and ultimately finding help. Yes, take time to share, play, laugh, think, care and grow together. 1 : a game in which a string looped in a pattern like a cradle on the fingers of one person's hands is transferred to the hands of another so as to form a different figure. These words and phrases aren’t to be taken literally; they have a figurative rather than literal meaning. The references to nursery rhymes suggest that the father wishes he could go back to the very beginning, when the son was an infant, and start over again. Even if you’ve never heard the term “idiom,” you have most likely heard many idiomatic expressions. Like many fathers today, the song states the conversations between father and son. "Man In The Moon" could be about the human features children see when they look at the moon. The extreme popularity of Chapin’s song likely propelled the phrase into the lexicon, and these days the song’s overall message can be summed up in the simple phrase “cat’s in the cradle.”. 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