mit jemandem Katz und Maus spielen

Meaning: To tease or toy with someone's emotions, alternating between kind and cruel treatment for personal amusement.

Language: German

Literally: to play cat and mouse with someone

Category: Animals

Origin: Grew directly out of real, observable cat behavior: a cat that has caught a mouse frequently doesn't kill it right away, instead releasing it just far enough to let it believe it has a chance to escape, only to pounce again before the kill — repeating the cycle purely, it seems, for its own engagement with the prey rather than out of any practical necessity. Martin Luther recorded the underlying logic in the 16th century with the line "der Katzen Spiel ist der Mäuse Tod" — the cat's play is the mouse's death — treating the game itself as inseparable from its cruel, foregone conclusion. Applied to human behavior, the phrase describes someone who deliberately toys with another person who has no real power to escape, drawing out their uncertainty or suffering rather than resolving it quickly, exactly the way a cat draws out a mouse's ordeal purely for its own satisfaction.