talon

plural talons

1. A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.

   and now doth gaſtly death With greedie talients gripe my bleeding hart, And like a Harpye tires on my life.

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii

   1 more example

   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 ?

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: fang

2. biologyOne of certain small prominences on the hind part of the face of an elephant's tooth.
3. architectureA 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.

   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 gamesThe remaining stock of undealt cards.
6. historicalbusinessA 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.

1. A surname transferred from the nickname.
2. A male given name from English of modern usage.

   'Very well, I shall call you Talon from now on. What does the name mean, in the tongue of the small folk?' 'It is a claw, like that found on a hawk,' Talon said.

   2010, David Farland, The Wyrmling Horde: Book 7 of the Runelords, Hachette UK, →ISBN