Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A short digit that does not reach the ground, found on the feet of dogs and certain other mammals.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The rudimentary inner toe of the foot, especially the hind foot, of some dogs.
  • noun The false hoof of deer and other ungulates.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun In any animal, esp. of the Herbivora, a rudimentary claw or small hoof not reaching the ground.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A vestigial digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps dew + claw.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dewclaw.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A small claw not reaching the ground, on the foot of some animals.

    "Dog lovers need to keep an eye on dewclaws and remember to keep the nails trimmed." Gina Spadafori; Beware of Halloween Hazards for Animals; The Sacramento Bee (California); Oct 28, 2006.

    - from A.Word.A.Day

    October 25, 2007

  • Yeah, my dog caught her dewclaw nail on something once and we had to take her to the vet to have it treated.

    Interestingly, the dewclaw isn't just the claw itself. It's the fleshy protuberance that the claw comes out of--perhaps a vestigial toe. At least, that's the way my vet and the vet techs were using the term, and I remember it because it was a cause of much confusion until we figured out that each of us was using the same term to mean different things.

    Another good dog-related word is flews.

    October 25, 2007

  • Flews! C_b, maybe you should add it to your Creative Onomatopoeia list.

    October 25, 2007

  • do claw clause

    October 5, 2010