Forms: 1 clawu, 2 clau, (3 pl. clawe, clawwess (Orm.)), 4 clauwe, (pl. clauen), 4–6 clowe, 4–7 clawe, 5– claw. See also CLEE. [OE. clawu (Ep. Erf. Corp. clauuo), obl. cases clawe. The quantity of the a is uncertain: if long, cláwu would be identical with OS. clâuua (MDu. claeuwe, Du. klauw), OHG. chlâwa (MHG. klâwe, klâ, mod.G. klaue), pointing to a type *klǣwâ-. But Ormin has the a short, and this answers better to the form clawu; an original type *klawâ would also best explain the OHG. variant chlôa, chlô (through chlaua, chlau). The OE. clawu (the ordinary WS. type) of the nominative was a new form reconstructed from the oblique cases; the original nominative type was cléa (:—clau, claw-), and cléo; see CLEE. (The ON. kló is not identical; it appears to be:—*klôh-, belonging to the vb. klâ-, kló: see next.)]
1. The sharp horny nail with which the feet of birds and some beasts are armed. Also applied to similar structures on the feet of insects, crustacea, etc.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 29. Clauuo [so Erf. and Corpus].
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. 28 (Bosw.). Næʓl oððe clawu, unguis.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 153. Þu havest scharpe clawe.
a. 1300. Body & Soul, 370, in Map’s Poems (Mätz.). Scharpe clauwes, long nayled.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 783. To bataile he [a bear] bownez him with bustous clowez.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 80. Claw or cle of a beste, ungula.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 159. His nayles or clowes lenger then a fote.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., IV. ii. 43. His nailes … shall hang out for the Lions clawes.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 2. His [the Flea’s] feet are slit into claws or talons.
1855. Gosse, Marine Zool., I. 155. (Porcelain crabs) First feet very long and slender with long claws.
b. ‘The foot of a beast or bird, armed with sharp nails, or the pincers or holders of shell-fish’ (J.). This is only a loose use, arising out of such phrases as in its claws, with its claws, etc.
a. 1000. Phœnix, 277 (Gr.). Fenix fyres lafe clam biclyppeþ.
1340. Ayenb., 61. Bodyes of wyfman, and tayl of uisssse, and clauen of arn.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. viii. 50. As a Bittur in the Eagles clawe.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. 470. If you tear off a claw from a live crab or lobster, it pushes out another.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), I. 148. The southern claw of Cancer.
† 2. A hoof, or one of the parts into which a (cloven) hoof is divided. Obs. Cf. CLEE.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Lev. xi. 3. Þa nytenu þe hira clawe todælede beoþ.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1225. Oxe gaþ o clofenn fot & shædeþþ hise clawwess.
1535. Coverdale, Deut. xiv. 6. Euery beest that deuydeth his clawe, & cheweth cudd, shal ye eate. Neuertheles these shal ye not eate … that … deuyde not the hoffe in to two clawes.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1560), I ij b. Goates clawes brent and poudred … or in stede of it shepes clawes.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 109. With claws like a Cow; but quadrifide.
3. fig. (Chiefly in phr. in one’s claws, etc., implying the notion of seizing, or having in one’s possession or power.) To pare the claws of is a common phrase resting immediately on sense 1, but usually fig. in use.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 356. Me fro the feend and fro his clowes keepe.
1576. Fleming, Panoplie Ep., 185. After that he had aspired to principalitie, and had caught governement within his clawes.
1617. Hieron, Wks. (1619–20), II. 221. So subtill is the deuill to make roome for himselfe, when hee hath once got in his claw.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. ii. 87/282. What’s Justice to a man, or Laws, That never comes within their Claws?
1790. Cowper, Lett., 26 Nov. I am happy that you have escaped from the claws of Euclid.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Oct., 1/1. To draw the teeth and pare the claws of the Peers.
4. ‘Sometimes a hand, in contempt’ (J.).
1577. Harrison, England, II. vi. (1877), I. 151. Some of them doo suffer their iawes to go oft before their clawes.
1851. Hawthorne, Snow Image, etc., Gt. Snow Face. A yellow claw—the very same that had clawed together so much wealth—poked itself out of the coach-window.
5. transf. A mechanical or other contrivance resembling a claw; e.g., a curved iron with sharpened extremity for grappling or tearing; the back part of a hammer head curved and cloven, or any similar tool for extracting nails; the spreading divisions of the foot of a table or stand; the ends of a horse-shoe, etc.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 542 (Bosw.). Sume wæron mid isenum clawum totorene.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xvii. 1. Youre synne … is … grauen … with a penne of yron and with an Adamant clawe.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. i. 355. After they had beene sore tormented with clawes [unguibus].
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 124. Draw it out again with the Claw of the Hammer.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4338/4. Printed with a Horse-shoe, with Claws downward.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 15. Hammers made for the purpose of drawing nails, with claws.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 203. A stand with three claws.
1851. W. P. Snow, Narr. Arct. Seas, xii. 156. To hook the iron claws on to the outer edges of the ice ahead.
6. Bot. The narrow sharpened base of the petal, in some flowers, by which it is attached.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., ii. 28. Each of these petals is fastened to the receptacle … by a narrow pale part which is called unguis, or the claw.
1835. Lindley, Introd. Bot., I. ii. § 4 ¶ 7 (L.). In … R. Œillet,… the petals consist wholly of claw.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 6. The upper large part of the petal is termed the limb, and the lower the claw.
7. [f. CLAW v.] An act of clawing. To make a claw to windward (Naut.): = CLAW v. 7.
1841. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), VI. 19. If the friends of the Charter only had the grace of seamanship, there would be a noble opportunity to make a claw to windward out of the misery the War-whigs have plunged themselves into.
8. attrib. and Comb., as claw-like adj.; claw-bar, a lever or crow-bar with a bent bifurcated claw for drawing spikes; claw-feet, (attrib.) having feet with or like claws; claw-footed a., having claws on the feet; claw-hammer, a hammer with a claw for extracting nails; claw-hammer coat (colloq.), a tail-coat for evening dress; claw-hand, a condition incident to some diseases, in which the wrist is extended and the fingers flexed, owing to atrophy of certain muscles; a hand thus affected; † claw-poll, a flatterer, toady (cf. CLAW-BACK); claw-screw, a screw with a clawed head; claw-table, a one-legged table with claws (see sense 5); claw-tailed a., having a tail resembling a claw.
1823. Mechanic’s Mag., No. 18. 274. A *claw-feet pillar or stand.
1667. R. Hope, 11 March, in Calendar State Papers Chas. II. (ed. Green). *Claw-footed like a dog.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 25. Claw-footed chairs.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), C cciij b. A *claw-hammer used by shipwrights.
1879. Hingston, Australian Abroad, i. 7. The tails of his *claw-hammer coat drag on the ground.
1887. F. Ford, in Mag. Art, March, 169/2. The ‘claw-hammer’ coat (as the Americans call it) essential to the evening dress of a gentleman of the Victorian era.
1879. Smiles, G. Moore. Any man who had a stick leg or a club foot or a *claw hand thought himself fit to be a teacher.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 615/2. Beset with … *claw-like processes.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 561. Certeine *Clawpoules & Parasites.
1795. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., LXXXV. 366. *Claw-screws … to confine and stretch the parts as they were seamed together.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., vi. 93. Similar to the leg and feet of a *claw table.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 50. The *claw-tailed Humble-Bee.
