cat's-claw

American  

[kats-klaw] / ˈkætsˌklɔ /

noun

1. a spiny shrub or small tree, Pithecellobium unguis-cati, of Central America, having greenish-yellow flowers and reddish, spirally twisted pods.

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Etymology

Origin of cat's-claw

First recorded in 1750–60

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cat's-claw

There's a man standing in that clump of cat's-claw ahead.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 1, May 1908 by Various

Kut-le strolled over to a cat's-claw bush at whose base lay a tangle of dead leaves.

From The Heart of the Desert Kut-Le of the Desert by Honoré Morrow

But after a few steps she found running impossible, for the slope was a wilderness of rock, thickly grown with cholla and yucca with here and there a thicker growth of cat's-claw.

From The Heart of the Desert Kut-Le of the Desert by Honoré Morrow

Yesterday it had slept unborn in a nook of the sand-hills, the abiding-place of cat's-claw, mesquit, and flickering lizards.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 1, May 1908 by Various

Besides these food plants of the desert, we have the cat's-claw, mesquite and cholla shrubs for fuel; the bear-grass and yuccas for camp-building.

From Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert by Jessie Graham [pseud.] Flower

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