To be made a cat’s paw of; to be made a tool or instrument to accomplish the purpose of another: an allusion to the story of a monkey, who made use of a cat’s paw to scratch a roasted chesnut out of the fire.
Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
Cat of nine Tails * Cat’s SleepNathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang
John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes