dactyl

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented or of one long syllable followed by two short, as in flattery.
2. n. A finger, toe, or similar part or structure; a digit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A unit of linear measure; a finger-breadth; a digit: used in reference to Greek, Egyptian, and Babylonian measures. The Egyptian dactyl was precisely one fourth of a palm, and was equal to 0.74 inch, or 18.7 millimeters. The Babylonian and Assyrian dactyls are by some authors considered as the fifth part, by others as the sixth part, of the corresponding palms. The ordinary Greek dactyl was one fourth of a palm, and its value in Athens is variously calculated to be from 1.85 to 1.93 centimeters.
2. n. In prosody, a foot of three syllables, the first long, the second and third short. The dactyl of modern or accentual versification is simply an accented syllable followed by two which are unaccented, and is accounted a dactyl without regard to the relative time taken in pronouncing the several syllables. Thus, the words cheerily, verily, violate, and edify, which on the principles of ancient metrics would be called respectively a dactyl , a tribrach , a Cretic , and an anapest , are all alike regarded as dactyls. The quantitative dactyl of Greek and Latin poetry is tetrasemic—that is, has a magnitude of four moræ (see mora); and as two of these constitute the thesis (in the Greek sense) and two the arsis, the dactyl, like its inverse, the anapest , belongs to the equal (isorrhythmic) class of feet. The true or normal dactyl has the ictus or metrical stress on the first syllable . Its most frequent equivalent or substitute is the dactylic spondee , in which the two short times are contracted into one long. Resolution of the long syllable is rare.
3. n. In anatomy: A digit, whether of the hand or foot; a finger or a toe.
4. n. A toe or digit of the hind foot only, when the word digit is restricted to a finger.
5. n. In zoology, a dactylus.
6. n. The piddock, Pholas dactylus. See dactylus .—
7. To move nimbly; leap; bound.
8. n. In Greek antiquity, a mythological creature supposed to have the secrets of fire and of iron-working. The dactyls were associated with the worship of Rhea and Cybele. The basis is found in some sacred stones (bætyl-stones) found in Crete, and associated with the worship of Cybele.

Wiktionary

1. n. A poetical foot of three syllables (— ~ ~), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Pros.) A poetical foot of three sylables (--- ˘ ˘), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented
2. n. A finger or toe; a digit.
3. n. The claw or terminal joint of a leg of an insect or crustacean.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a finger or toe in human beings or corresponding body part in other vertebrates
2. n. a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables