The Collaborative International Dictionary
Digitigrade \Dig"i*ti*grade\, a. [L. digitus finger, toe + gradi to step, walk: cf. F. digitigrade.] (Zo["o]l.) Walking on the toes; -- distinguished from plantigrade.
Digitigrade \Dig"i*ti*grade\, n. (Zo["o]l.) An animal that walks on its toes, as the cat, lion, wolf, etc.; -- distinguished from a plantigrade, which walks on the palm of the foot.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context of an animal English) walk on the toes, putting the weight of the body mainly on the ball of the foot, with the back of the foot, or heel, raised. 2 (context zoology specifically English) belong to the ''(taxlink Digitigrada clade noshow=1)'' of the taxonomic order Carnivora. 3 (context of feet or a manner of walking English) Of, resemble, or pertaining to that of a digitigrade animal. n. (context chiefly in the plural English) A digitigrade animal, such as a dog or a cat; an animal that walks on its toes.
WordNet
adj. (of mammals) walking on the toes with the posterior part of the foot raised [ant: plantigrade]
Wikipedia
A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Digitigrades include walking birds (what many assume to be bird knees are actually ankles), cats, dogs, and many other mammals, but not plantigrades or unguligrades. Digitigrades generally move more quickly and quietly than other animals.
There are anatomical differences between the limbs of plantigrades, like humans, and both unguligrade and digitigrade limbs. Digitigrade and unguligrade animals have relatively long carpals and tarsals, and the bones which would correspond to the human ankle are thus set much higher in the limb than in a human. In a digitigrade animal, this effectively lengthens the foot, so much so that what are often thought of as a digitigrade animal's "hands" and "feet" correspond only to what would be the bones of the human finger or toe.
Humans usually walk with the soles of their feet on the ground, in plantigrade locomotion. In contrast, digitigrade animals walk on their distal and intermediate phalanges. Digitigrade locomotion is responsible for the distinctive hooked shape of dog legs.
Unguligrade animals, such as horses and cattle , walk only on the distal-most tips of their digits, while in digitigrade animals, more than one segment of the digit makes contact with the ground, either directly (as in birds) or via paw-pads (as in dogs).
Usage examples of "digitigrade".
He wondered how fast they could run on those primitive digitigrade feet.
Jerdon remarks, it may be considered as a sort of link between the plantigrade and digitigrade carnivora.
Despite its evidently distinct digitigrade mode of locomotion, moderately long legs, and heavy tail, its three upper molars distinguished it as an ancestor of Amphicyon and through it of all modern bears—unlike Cynodesmus, of which Danchekker also had a specimen, whose upper dentition of two molars put it between Cynodictis and contemporary Canidae.
Despite its evidently distinct digitigrade mode of locomotion, moderately long legs, and heavy tail, its three upper molars distinguished it as an ancestor of Amphicyon and through it of all modern bears-unlike Cynodesmus, of which Danchekker also had a specimen, whose upper dentition of two molars put it between Cynodictis and contemporary Canidae.