"show one's claws" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the way a feline will extend its claws when attacking, as opposed to leaving them retracted so that they do not show.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shows one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showing one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showed one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shown one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "",
        "3": "",
        "4": "shown one's claws"
      },
      "expansion": "show one's claws (third-person singular simple present shows one's claws, present participle showing one's claws, simple past showed one's claws, past participle shown one's claws)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "58 42",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1949, Chess Review - Volume 17, page 7",
          "text": "In this event he really showed his claws by winning ten games, drawing four while losing four.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Gwen Moffat, Space Below My Feet",
          "text": "Perhaps if I'd been dressed in conventional clothes and carried a suitcase they would have been more sure of themselves, but right up until the time that I reached my final destination, a transit camp outside Liverpool, I was handled with kid gloves, as if they suspected my present tractability were transient and that if they made a false move I would show my claws.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Janet L. Nelson, Charles The Bald, page xiv",
          "text": "But when Louis showed his claws, Lothar knew he meant business.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To demonstrate one's ability to hurt another."
      ],
      "id": "en-show_one's_claws-en-verb-LMcCZDhU",
      "links": [
        [
          "demonstrate",
          "demonstrate"
        ],
        [
          "hurt",
          "hurt"
        ],
        [
          "another",
          "another"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to demonstrate one's abilities",
          "word": "näyttää kyntensä"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see show, claw."
      ],
      "id": "en-show_one's_claws-en-verb-13ILZ7xC",
      "links": [
        [
          "show",
          "show#English"
        ],
        [
          "claw",
          "claw#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "show one's claws"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the way a feline will extend its claws when attacking, as opposed to leaving them retracted so that they do not show.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shows one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showing one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showed one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shown one's claws",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "",
        "3": "",
        "4": "shown one's claws"
      },
      "expansion": "show one's claws (third-person singular simple present shows one's claws, present participle showing one's claws, simple past showed one's claws, past participle shown one's claws)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1949, Chess Review - Volume 17, page 7",
          "text": "In this event he really showed his claws by winning ten games, drawing four while losing four.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Gwen Moffat, Space Below My Feet",
          "text": "Perhaps if I'd been dressed in conventional clothes and carried a suitcase they would have been more sure of themselves, but right up until the time that I reached my final destination, a transit camp outside Liverpool, I was handled with kid gloves, as if they suspected my present tractability were transient and that if they made a false move I would show my claws.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Janet L. Nelson, Charles The Bald, page xiv",
          "text": "But when Louis showed his claws, Lothar knew he meant business.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To demonstrate one's ability to hurt another."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "demonstrate",
          "demonstrate"
        ],
        [
          "hurt",
          "hurt"
        ],
        [
          "another",
          "another"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see show, claw."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "show",
          "show#English"
        ],
        [
          "claw",
          "claw#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to demonstrate one's abilities",
      "word": "näyttää kyntensä"
    }
  ],
  "word": "show one's claws"
}