noun
Refers to a person used by someone else to do their bidding, often in a manipulative or subordinate way. Commonly appears in the phrase お先棒を担ぐ (to act as someone's cat's-paw).
See also: お先棒を担ぐ
彼は上司のお先棒を担いで、嫌な仕事を押し付けられた。
He was made to act as his boss's cat's-paw and was stuck with unpleasant work.
あの男はただのお先棒に過ぎない。
That man is nothing more than a tool.
The exact derivation is uncertain. The word likely combines the honorific prefix お with 先棒 (さきぼう), which originally referred to the front pole of a palanquin or the person carrying it, metaphorically extended to a person who does the legwork for someone else.