† ˈungle Obs.
[ad. F. ongle (cf. ongle) or L. ungula ungula.]
1. A claw, nail, or hoof.
| 1480 Caxton Myrr. ii. iv. 70 The gryffons wylde..whiche easily bere a man away..whan he may sease hym with his clawes and vngles. 1491 ― Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xlviii. 93/2 The ungles or nayles of his fete and hondes weren merueyllously longe. 1566 W. Adlington Apuleius 39 We fleade of the skinne..of the beare..and kept his ungles whole. 1657 Tomlinson Renou's Disp. 457 It hath bifidous ungles like a Goat. |
2. A hooked instrument of torture.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 122/2 The tormentes of the pryson, the naylles, the vngles, the streynynge combes of yron. |
3. A morbid growth in the eye; = ungula 2.
| 1590 P. Barrough Meth. Physick i. xxxvi. (1596) 59 Somtime..another vngle ariseth in the other corner [of the eye]. |
4. Geom. = ungula 4.
| 1669 Wallis in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 508 He proceeds to a sum of squares to find the solid ungula, or the moment of that plane; and so to the sums of cubes, to find the moment of that ungle, and so on. |