crowfoot
(ˈkrəʊfʊt)
Pl. -feet, in senses 1 and 2 -foots.
1. A name for various species of Ranunculus or Buttercup, properly those with divided leaves; but extended as a book-name to the whole genus.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 105 Crowefote, herbe, amarusca. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 114 a, Ranunculus is called..in Englishe Crowfoot or King cup. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden xlvii. 93 [Wall Pepper] raiseth blisters..as forcibly as Ranunculus or Crowfoot will do. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) I. 7 The leaves of the Ranunculus aquatilis, or Water Crowfoot. 1832 Tennyson May Queen i. 38 And the cowslip and the crowfoot are over all the hill. |
2. Applied to other plants of which the leaves or some other part are taken to resemble a crow's foot: a. Geranium pratense; also called crowfoot cranesbill, c. geranium. † b. Plantago Coronopus and Senebiera Coronopus; also crowfoot plantain. c. The wild hyacinth, Scilla nutans (north. and west.). d. Orchis mascula and other species (Yorksh. etc.). e. Lotus corniculatus (Glouc.). Cf. Britten and Holland Plant-n.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xxxii. 48 The seventh [kind of Geranium] is called in English Croefoote Geranium. Ibid. i. lxiv. 93 Of Buckhorne Plantayne..two kindes of herbes, both comprehended under the name of Crowfoote. The first Crowfoote or Hartshorne, hath long narrow and hearie leaues. Ibid. 94 The second Crowfoote hath..leaues much like to the leaues of the other Crowfoote Plantayne. 1828 Craven Dial., Crows'-feet Craw-feet..2. Wild hyacinth. |
3. = crow's-foot 1.
| 1614 J. Davies Eglogue betw. Willy & Wernocke 133 The crow-feet neere mine Eyne. 1831 Blackw. Mag. XXIX. 15 They..who have served the Muses, till the crow-feet are blackening below their eyes. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 178 Tracing out..every wrinkle and crowfoot. |
4. Naut. a. A device consisting of a number of small cords rove through a long block or euphroe, used to suspend an awning, or to keep the topsail from chafing against the top-rim. b. ‘A kind of stand, attached to the end of mess-tables, and hooked to a beam above’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.). c. = beam-arm: see beam n.1
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 24 The martnets..are..small lines like crowfeet. 1692 ― ed. of Seaman's Gram. i. xiv. 65 The Spritsail Topsails Crowfoot. 1730 Capt. W. Wriglesworth MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell’ 17 Sept., [We] Reeved our Crowfoots. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine. 1850 Weale Dict. Terms, Crow-foot, a number of small lines rove through to suspend an awning. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., Crowfoot or beam-arm is also a crooked timber, extended from the side of a beam to the ship's side, in the wake of the hatchway, supplying the place of a beam. |
5. A kind of embroidery-stitch. Also attrib.
The first quot. is doubtful.
| [1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, ccxxvi, Shee's gone to Schoole; her Cross row and Crow feet Hinder the Huswiferye of her Clay-pies.] 1839 H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard ii, She wore a muslin cap, and pinners with crow-foot edging. |
6. Mil. A caltrop; = crow's-foot 3.
| 1678 tr. Gaya's Arms War 102 The Crow-foot, or Casting Caltrop, are Iron Pricks, made in such a manner, that what way soever they be turned they have alwayes the point upwards. 1688 J. S. Fortification 125. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. 59 The ploughman turns up the craw⁓foot, the small Scottish horse-shoe, and the like tokens of [Bannockburn]. |
7. Mining. ‘A tool with a side-claw, for grasping and recovering broken rods in deep bore-holes’ (Raymond Mining Gloss.).