Back in grade school whenever we played a game of Tic-Tac-Toe (X's and O's) and the result was a tie, we would call it a "Cat's Game." I've never heard this term applied to a tie in any other circumstance and was interested in where this term came from and why it seems to be unique to Tic-Tac-Toe.
Learn English – Why is a tie in Tic-Tac-Toe called a “Cat’s Game?”
etymology
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Best Answer
I always took it as a sort of dismissal of the game. When you think about the games that a cat would play, such as batting around a toy, or chasing it's own tail, there is no win condition. So basically it is saying "That is a game that served no purpose".
Apparently on the broader scale tic-tac-toe has always had a connotation with cats in many different cultures, here is an interesting snippet from a podcast discussing the topic http://www.waywordradio.org/tic-tac-toe-cats-game/