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goat's foot

goat's foot noun: a particular type of mechanism for cocking a crossbow.

goat's foot: a particular type of mechanism for cocking a crossbow
Image: Viollet-le-Duc, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

goat's foot (plural goat's feet)

  1. A particular type of mechanism for cocking a crossbow.
    • A number of halberds, or battle-axes, also was carried. Other ordnance included two goat's feet (crossbow cocking mechanisms) and bombs, grenades, and combustible balls “for fireworks.”1978, J. Barto Arnold, Robert S. Weddle, The Nautical Archeology of Padre Island: The Spanish Shipwrecks of 1554
    • Besides being difficult, hand cocking some bows gets the string a little off center. This can reduce accuracy. From ancient times, crossbow cocking devices have helped solve both problems. A modern version of the goat's foot lever does ...1983, Popular Mechanics, page 129
  2. Scutiger pes-caprae, a species of fungus in the order Russulales.

Examples of goat's foot in a sentence

  • Two arms of the goat's foot were placed back of the pin, and hooks on the pivot were used to grasp the string.2006, William Hovey Smith, Crossbow Hunting, Stackpole Books, →ISBN:
  • The goat's foot lever is about the length of my forearm and as wide as the stock.2011, G. E. M. Thomas, Strong Roads a Spanish Shipwreck Survivor in Ancient Hawaii, G E M Thomas, →ISBN, page 155:

Forms of goat's foot

pluralgoat's feet
alternative formgoatsfoot

Origin of goat's foot

From its resemblance to a goat's hind-foot.

Questions about goat's foot

What does goat's foot mean?
Goat's foot means a particular type of mechanism for cocking a crossbow.
How do you use goat's foot in a sentence?
Two arms of the goat's foot were placed back of the pin, and hooks on the pivot were used to grasp the string.
What part of speech is goat's foot?
Goat's foot is a noun.
What is the plural of goat's foot?
The plural of goat's foot is goat's feet.

Words near goat's foot in the dictionary

  1. goat willow
  2. goat willows
  3. goat yoga
  4. goat's cheese
  5. goat's cheeses
  6. goat's foot
  7. goat's milk
  8. goat's milk cheese
  9. goat's milk cheeses
  10. goat's milks
  11. goat's rue

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goat's foot (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.

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Cite this entry: “goat's foot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goat%27s_foot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.