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Glite Dictionary
🥐 A pastry 🐾 An animal claw 🎨 A decorative motif
bear claw

bear claw

8.3
A carved or painted design that looks like a bear's claw on pottery and crafts
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : motivo de garra de oso
  • The pot was decorated with a bear claw pattern around its rim.

Examples

  • Traditional Pueblo pottery often features a stylized bear claw design.

  • The artist carved a bear claw motif to honor ancestral spirits.

  • The pottery featured a beautiful bear claw design.

  • The bear claw motif is symbolic in many cultures.

  • The pot was decorated with a bear claw pattern around its rim.

  • Traditional Pueblo pottery often features a stylized bear claw design.

  • The artist carved a bear claw motif to honor ancestral spirits.

Surface Forms

bear claw singular
bear claws plural

Morphology

bear + claw

The meaning is a straightforward descriptive compound: combining 'bear' + 'claw' signals something that resembles a bear's claw, so the decorative motif sense is directly inferable from the constituents. This noun+noun pattern (naming by resemblance) is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand the MWE.

Etymology

Bear claw as a decorative motif comes from carved or painted marks that look like the curved claw of a bear, used on pottery to honor ancestors or show power. That's why a 'bear claw' design today means a stylized claw pattern in Native American art.