Crowfoot

Pl. -feet, in senses 1 and 2 -foots.

  1.  A name for various species of Ranunculus or Buttercup, properly those with divided leaves; but extended as a book-name to the whole genus.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 105. Crowefote, herbe, amarusca.

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 114 a. Ranunculus is called … in Englishe Crowfoot or King cup.

1657.  W. Coles, Adam in Eden, xlvii. 93. [Wall Pepper] raiseth blisters … as forcibly as Ranunculus or Crowfoot will do.

1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), I. 7. The leaves of the Ranunculus aquatilis, or Water Crowfoot.

1832.  Tennyson, May Queen, I. 38. And the cowslip and the crowfoot are over all the hill.

  2.  Applied to other plants of which the leaves or some other part are taken to resemble a crow’s foot: a. Geranium pratense; also called Crowfoot Cranesbill, C. Geranium. † b. Plantago Coronopus and Senebiera Coronopus; also Crowfoot Plantain. c. The wild hyacinth, Scilla nutans (north. and west.). d. Orchis mascula and other species (Yorks. etc.). e. Lotus corniculatus (Glouc.). Cf. Britten and Holland, Plant-n.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. xxxii. 48. The seventh [kind of Geranium] is called in English Croefoote Geranium. Ibid., I. lxiv. 93. Of Buckhorne Plantayne … two kindes of herbes, both comprehended under the name of Crowfoote. The first Crowfoote or Hartshorne, hath long narrow and hearie leaues. Ibid., 94. The second Crowfoote hath … leaues much like to the leaues of the other Crowfoote Plantayne.

1828.  Craven Dial., Crows’-feet Craw-feet … 2. Wild hyacinth.

  3.  = CROW’S-FOOT 1.

1614.  J. Davies, Eglogue betw. Willy & Wernocke, 133. The crow-feet neere mine Eyne.

1831.  Blackw. Mag., XXIX. 15. They … who have served the Muses, till the crow-feet are blackening below their eyes.

1864.  Lowell, Fireside Trav., 178. Tracing out … every wrinkle and crowfoot.

  4.  Naut. a. A device consisting of a number of small cords rove through a long block or EUPHROE, used to suspend an awning, or to keep the topsail from chafing against the top-rim. b. ‘A kind of stand, attached to the end of mess-tables, and hooked to a beam above’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.). c. = Beam-arm: see BEAM sb.¹

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 24. The martnets … are … small lines like crowfeet. Ibid. (1692), ed. of Seaman’s Gram., I. xiv. 65. The Spritsail Topsails Crowfoot.

1730.  Capt. W. Wriglesworth, MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell,’ 17 Sept., [We] Reeved our Crowfoots.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine.

1850.  Weale, Dict. Terms, Crow-foot, a number of small lines rove through to suspend an awning.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., Crowfoot or beam-arm is also a crooked timber, extended from the side of a beam to the ship’s side, in the wake of the hatchway, supplying the place of a beam.

  5.  A kind of embroidery-stitch. Also attrib.

  The first quot. is doubtful.

[1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., ccxxvi. Shee’s gone to Schoole; her Cross row and Crow feet Hinder the Huswiferye of her Clay-pies.]

1839.  W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, I. II. ii. 181. She wore a muslin cap, and pinners, with crow-foot edging.

  6.  Mil. A caltrop; = CROW’S-FOOT 3.

1678.  trans. Gaya’s Arms War, 102. The Crow-foot, or Casting Caltrop, are Iron Pricks, made in such manner, that what way soever they be turned they have alwayes the point upwards.

1688.  J. S., Fortification, 125.

1851.  D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. 59. The ploughman turns up the craw-foot, the small Scottish horse-shoe, and the like tokens of [Bannockburn].

  7.  Mining. ‘A tool with a side-claw, for grasping and recovering broken rods in deep bore-holes’ (Raymond, Mining Gloss.).