crow's-foot

American  

[krohz-foot] / ˈkroʊzˌfʊt /

noun

crow's-feet plural

1. Usually crow's-feet. any of the tiny wrinkles at the outer corners of the eyes resulting from age or constant squinting.

2. Aeronautics. an arrangement of ropes in which one main rope exerts pull at several points simultaneously through a group of smaller ropes, as in balloon or airship rigging.

3. (in tailoring) a three-pointed embroidered design used as a finish, as at the end of a seam or opening.

4. crowfoot.

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crow's-foot British  

noun

1. (often plural) a wrinkle at the outer corner of the eye

2. an embroidery stitch with three points, used esp as a finishing at the end of a seam

3. a system of diverging short ropes to distribute the pull of a single rope, used esp in balloon and airship riggings

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• crow's-feet
  plural

Etymology

Origin of crow's-foot

1350–1400; Middle English; so called because likened to a crow's foot or footprint

Example Sentences

"It will be noticed, for it isn't avoidable," Capote wrote, "how often he emphasizes the elderly; and, even among the just middle-aged, unrelentingly tracks down every hard-earned crow's foot."

From Salon • Jan. 16, 2023

At Harvard College a badge formerly worn on the sleeve, resembling a crow's foot, to denote the class to which a student belongs.

From A Collection of College Words and Customs by Hall, Benjamin Homer

I have the print of a crow's foot on the outside of my left eye, which I attribute to the literary characters of small towns.

From The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by Forster, John

She thrust her face close to the glass, to see whether some long-remembered wrinkle or crow's foot had indeed vanished.

From From Twice Told Tales by Hawthorne, Nathaniel

She is a little stouter, of course; I can see a wrinkle and a crow's foot here and there; and her hair is grizzled.

From The Opinions of a Philosopher by Grant, Robert