Definition of "talon"

talon

/ˈtælən/

noun
plural talons
1. A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
  Quotations
  and now doth gaſtly deathWith greedie talients gripe my bleeding hart,And like a Harpye tires on my life.
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene vii
  It may be tried also whether birds may not have something done to them when they are young , whereby they may be made to have greater or longer bills , or greater and longer talons ?
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
2. (zoology) One of certain small prominences on the hind part of the face of an elephant's tooth.
3. (architecture) A kind of moulding, concave at the bottom and convex at the top; an ogee. (When the concave part is at the top, it is called an inverted talon.)
4. The shoulder of the bolt of a lock on which the key acts to shoot the bolt.
  Quotations
  The locks were constructed with two or three levers, and sometimes with a common tumbler. The talon is the secret; for after locking the bolt out, the key is turned round again quietly to catch the nib and force the talon up
  1856, George Price, A Treatise on Fire and Thief-proof Depositories, and Locks
5. (card games) The remaining stock of undealt cards.
6. (finance, historical) A document that could be detached and presented in exchange for a block of further coupons on a bond, when the original block had been used up.

Definition of "talon"

talon

noun

Quotations

Quotations