claw

With so much time spent clawing at his imagined future, Man-su loses sight of the company man title from his past.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The loose ball tumbled through the end zone, slipping through one set of fingertips, then another, blue-and-orange bodies clawing desperately aside cardinal-and-gold ones.

By November, Harris had clawed her way back to a near-draw, leading in most surveys and losing the popular vote by only 1.5 percentage points — and even less in swing states.

Although it is obsolete in this sense, the verb survives in Welsh English in the sense of to scratch, especially with claws or fingernails, along with the noun use, to scratch.

A xenomorph inches close enough for the crab to raise its claws in defense before backing away from its tiny earthly cousin.