Word.ws English Dictionary

declawing

UK/diːˈklɔːwɪŋ(ɡ)/

declawing is the present participle and gerund of declaw.

Meaning of declaw

Verb

declaw (third-person singular simple present declaws, present participle declawing, simple past and past participle declawed)

  1. (transitive) To surgically remove the claws of (an animal); to perform onychectomy on.
    • On Oct. 9, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that bans cats from being declawed statewide. Veterinarians can no longer declaw cats even if an owner wants the procedure to be done.2025 October 20, Kai Arellano, “New California law prohibits declawing cats”, in CapRadio, archived from the original on 25 Oct 2025
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To make harmless; to remove the power, authority, or force from.
    • The acerbic comedy has been declawed by the demands of network TV.

Noun

declawing (usually uncountable, plural declawings)

  1. (usually) The surgical removal of claws.
    • California joins New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in banning declawing statewide, according to the Los Angeles Times. Several California cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Burbank, Culver City, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood, had previously...2025 October 9, Angelique Brenes, “California bans declawing cats under new state law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom”, in KTLA5, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2025
    Synonyms:
    onychectomy

Synonyms of declawing

Forms of declawing

pluraldeclawings

Questions about declawing

What does declawing mean?
Declawing means the surgical removal of claws.
What is declawing the present participle and gerund of?
Declawing is the present participle and gerund of declaw.
What part of speech is declawing?
Declawing is a noun.
How do you pronounce declawing?
Declawing is pronounced /diːˈklɔːwɪŋ(ɡ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of declawing?
The plural of declawing is declawings.

Words near declawing in the dictionary

  1. declassify
  2. declassifying
  3. declassing
  4. declaw
  5. declawed
  6. declawing
  7. declawings
  8. declaws
  9. decleanse
  10. decleansed
  11. decleanses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: declawing (page history and authors); declaw (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “declawing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/declawing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.