catclaw
Americannoun
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a prickly plant, Schrankia nutallii, of the legume family, native to the midwestern U.S. having pinnate leaves and tiny pink flowers forming a spherical cluster.
Etymology
Origin of catclaw
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It moved here, to remote ranchlands where even the plant names — catclaw, saltbush, snakeweed — sound forbidding.
From Time • Jun. 4, 2010
Such worthless plant life as mesquite and catclaw absorbs 35% of the rainfall, and another 40% is lost to evaporation.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Wink's housewives watch warily for rattlesnakes slithering through the mesquite and catclaw bushes in their yards.
From Time Magazine Archive
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We could hear his angry rumbling as he moved down through the thickets of catclaw and scrub oak.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
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He fell into a bush of catclaw cactus.
From Oh, You Tex! by Raine, William MacLeod
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.