- 1（猛禽的）利爪、爪。中文常直接說「爪子」，但英文 talon 專指老鷹、貓頭鷹這類猛禽抓獵物的爪；一般動物或雞的爪是 claw。
A talon is the sharp, curved claw on the foot of a bird that hunts — an eagle, a hawk, an owl. We keep the word for hunting birds. A chicken has claws, not talons; a cat has claws too. The difference is not really about the shape, it is about what the foot is for: talons are the tool the bird kills and carries with. That is why the word feels strong. When people describe a hawk, they often say it "sank its talons into" something, and you can hear the danger in it. Because of that feeling, writers stretch the word to people. "He had the money in his talons" means someone is holding it the way a bird holds prey — hard, and not letting go. This is a picture, not a normal way to talk, and it usually sounds . You would not say it about a person you like. Though actually, there is a second talon that has nothing to do with birds, and card players in Taiwan may meet it: in some card games the pile of cards left over after dealing is called the talon. Same spelling, different world. And in a few places you will see it for the curved part of a key or a lock. These are small,专門 uses — the bird is the one your students need.
組成From Old French talon, meaning "heel" — which came from Latin talus, the ankle bone. So the word started at the back of the foot and moved to the front: it once named the heel, and English pushed it out to the claw.
原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Talonname
- 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.
talonnoun/ˈtælən/
- 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.
- 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 ?
- 2
biologynatural-scienceszoologyOne 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
- 5
card-gamesgamesThe remaining stock of undealt cards.
- 6
historicalbusinessfinanceA 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.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。