Search for crossword answers and clues
Mammal's digit that doesn't touch the ground
Answer for the clue "Mammal's digit that doesn't touch the ground ", 7 letters:
dewclaw
Alternative clues for the word dewclaw
Word definitions for dewclaw in dictionaries
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dewclaw \Dew"claw`\, n. In any animal, esp. of the Herbivora, a rudimentary claw or small hoof not reaching the ground. Some cut off the dewclaws [of greyhounds]. --J. H. Walsh.
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. A vestigial digit, hoof or claw that does not reach the ground.
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
A dewclaw is a digit – vestigial in some animals – on the foot of many mammals , birds , and reptiles (including some extinct orders, like certain theropods ). It commonly grows high on the leg such that in digitigrade species, when the animal is standing, ...
Usage examples of dewclaw.
Beneath a prowlike keelbone were lean yellow-skinned arms whose hands, evolved from talons, each bore three sharp-clawed fingers flanked by two thumbs, and a dewclaw on the inner wrist.
Heavy with his spread of antlers, his toes splayed, and dewclaws marked the earth.
Ogawa noticed that he was using his tail almost as a tertiary leg, and that Ree’s dewclaws had dug deeply into the carpet.
He heard the snow crunch under her splay-toed feet, the huge hooves sinking down until the dewclaws locked in the ice.
It took Quantrill a moment to realize what he was looking at: the dewclaws at the rear of each hoof had dug in, and the loose soil was ahead of the prints.
Then it approached the body of Medai and pawed at it with claws as long as a man’s hand—poisonous, the dewclaw possessing venom ducts, the casual swipe of them capable of disemboweling mri or regul.
At the time, it had puzzled her, and it did again now, for in Ailurin a “sixth claw” was an extra dewclaw, which polydactyl cats might have.