talon

Meaning

Noun

• A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
• One of certain small prominences on the hind part of the face of an elephant's tooth.
• 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.)
• The shoulder of the bolt of a lock on which the key acts to shoot the bolt.
• The remaining stock of undealt cards.
• 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.

Origin

• From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon, from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Vulgar Latin *tālōnis, from Latin tālus.