crow's-foot

Noun

crow's foot (plural crow's feet or crows' feet)

1. (plural-normally) A small wrinkle in the corner of an eye, emblematic of aging.
   • You must get a brown gown, and a white apron, and a mob cap, and we must make you a few wrinkles, and a little of the crowsfoot at the corner of your eyes, and you will be a very proper, little old woman.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 305–306
2. A triangular embroidery stitch.
3. A symbol, resembling a bisected equilateral triangle, used in database diagrams to indicate plurality.
   • The crow's-foot notation similarly represents relationships.1999, Robert J Muller, Database Design for Smarties
4. A number of lines rove through a long wooden block, supporting the backbone of an awning horizontally.
5. A caltrop.
6. A device for supporting a tripod to prevent the legs from slipping.
   • My foreman with his faked assistant had littered the place with all my apparatus, my bellbox, my crowsfoot, the V-drills, the rods, and the weight, but Malone insisted that we disregard all that and descend ourselves to the lowest level.1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed

See all 8 meanings of crow's foot