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Chambers (1908)

Claw

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This edition’s origin note

[A.S. clawu; cog. with Ger. klaue; akin to Cleave, to stick.]

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Claw, klaw, n. the hooked nail of a beast or bird: the whole foot of an animal with hooked nails: anything like a claw: an instrument shaped like a claw.—v.t. to scratch or tear as with the claws or nails: to scrape; to seize: (fig.) to flatter, fawn on.—n. Claw′back, a toady, flatterer.—adj. Clawed, having claws.—ns. Claw-hamm′er, a hammer with one part of the head divided into two claws, with which to extract nails; Claw′-hamm′er-coat, a facetious name for a dress-coat.—adj. Claw′less.—Claw me and I'll claw thee, favour me and I shall do you good in return. [A.S. clawu; cog. with Ger. klaue; akin to Cleave, to stick.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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