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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

claw.

A curved, pointed, horny projection on each digit of the foot of a mammal, reptile, or bird.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/klɔ//klɑ/cot-caught-merger/klɔː/Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/kloː/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard
  1. A curved, pointed, horny projection on each digit of the foot of a mammal, reptile, or bird.

  2. A foot equipped with such.

  3. The pincer (chela) of a crustacean or other arthropod.

  4. A mechanical device resembling a claw, used for gripping or lifting.

  5. A human fingernail, particularly one extending well beyond the fingertip.

    colloquial
  6. A slender appendage or process, formed like a claw, such as the base of petals of the pink.

  7. The act of catching a ball overhand.

  8. A tree with one internal vertex and three leaves.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English clawe, from Old English clawu, from Proto-Germanic *klawō. Compare West Frisian klau, Dutch klauw, German Klaue, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish klo.

verb/klɔ//klɑ/cot-caught-merger/klɔː/Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/kloː/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard
  1. To scratch or to tear at.

  2. To use the claws to seize, to grip.

  3. To use the claws to climb.

  4. To perform a claw catch.

  5. To move with one's fingertips.

  6. To relieve an uneasy feeling, such as an itch, by scratching (someone or something); hence (figuratively), to flatter or humour (someone); to court, to fawn on.

    obsolete · transitive
  7. To rail at, revile, or scold (someone or something).

    obsolete · transitive
  8. To do (something) quickly.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English clawen, from a combination of Old English clawan/clāwan (a remodelling of *clīeġan, from Proto-West Germanic *klauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *klawjaną) and Old English clawian (from Proto-West Germanic *klawēn).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.