breeze vs cat's-paw

breeze

noun
  • A light, gentle wind. 

  • An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel. 

  • Wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength. 

  • Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on Clinker. 

  • Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult. 

  • A brief workout for a racehorse. 

  • A gadfly; a horsefly; a strong-bodied dipterous insect of the family Tabanidae. 

verb
  • To take a horse on a light run in order to understand the running characteristics of the horse and to observe it while under motion. 

  • To blow gently. 

  • To move casually, in a carefree manner. 

  • To swim near the surface of the water, causing ripples in the surface. 

  • To buzz. 

cat's-paw

noun
  • A minor breeze that ripples the surface of a body of water. 

  • Any of several species of North American freshwater mussels of the genus Epioblasma, especially E. obliquata. 

  • A paw of a cat. 

  • A metal set of claws worn over the hand or wielded in the hand used to remove skin and flesh. 

  • A small crowbar with a handle at a right angle to a blade with a V-shaped notch, principally used by carpenters to remove nails. 

  • A supervisor whose reliance on a subordinate's analysis is so complete as to render him or her liable for the subordinate's animus or other misconduct towards a third employee. 

  • A twisting variant of the lark's-foot hitch which forms two small bights used to hook a pair of tackles to a rope. 

  • Someone or something that comes down quickly upon a victim in the manner of a cat's paw. 

  • Someone who acts in another's interest, (properly) unknowingly or through trickery. 

  • Any of several species of Australian bloodworts of the genus Anigozanthos, especially A. humilis. 

How often have the words breeze and cat's-paw occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )