clawing

Verb

claw (third-person singular simple present claws, present participle clawing, simple past and past participle clawed)

1. To scratch or to tear at.
   • Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic.2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times
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.
   • De Gea was United's hero again within seconds of Hernandez's equaliser, diving to his left to claw away Dirk Kuyt's shot as he got on the end of a superb cross from Stewart Downing.2011 October 15, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 1 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport
6. (obsolete, transitive) 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.
   • I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

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