Sheepsfoot

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A printer's tool with a claw at one end for prizing up forms. historical
  2. 2
    A blade with one straight edge and one edge which runs parallel for most of the blade's length until it curves abruptly (almost at a right angle) down to a point at the tip, resulting in less of a piercing point than on a Wharncliffe; (loosely) a Wharncliffe.

    "These small blades are quite odd looking, as they don't have a point. The edge of a sheepsfoot blade is commonly straight. The spine is often quite straight, but it suddenly veers almost straight down to meet the edge at the tip."

Example

More examples

"These small blades are quite odd looking, as they don't have a point. The edge of a sheepsfoot blade is commonly straight. The spine is often quite straight, but it suddenly veers almost straight down to meet the edge at the tip."

Etymology

From sheep + -s- + foot.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.