Word.ws English Dictionary

dewclaw

dewclaw noun: a digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground.

dewclaw: a digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground
Image: Amos T Fairchild, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

dewclaw (plural dewclaws)

  1. A digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground.

dewclaw meaning in Arabic and Malay

dewclaw in Arabic

a vestigial digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground
زمعة

dewclaw in Malay

a vestigial digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground
kuku embun

Forms of dewclaw

pluraldewclaws
alternative formdew claw

Origin of dewclaw

Uncertain first element + claw. Compare dewlap. One suggestion, possibly a folk etymology, is that dewclaws brush dew away.

Questions about dewclaw

What does dewclaw mean?
Dewclaw means a digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground.
What is dewclaw in Arabic?
Dewclaw in Arabic is زمعة. See Dewclaw meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is dewclaw?
Dewclaw is a noun.
What is the plural of dewclaw?
The plural of dewclaw is dewclaws.

Words near dewclaw in the dictionary

  1. DeWayne
  2. dewberries
  3. dewberry
  4. dewcap
  5. dewcaps
  6. dewclaw
  7. dewclawed
  8. dewclaws
  9. dewd
  10. dewdrop
  11. dewdrops

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dewclaw (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: “dewclaw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dewclaw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.