noun a finger or toe; a digit.
2. dactyl ·noun the claw or terminal joint of a leg of an insect or crustacean.
3. dactyl ·noun a poetical foot of three sylables (-- ~ ~), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented; as, ·lat. tegm(n/), ·eng. merciful;
so called from the similarity of its arrangement to that of the joints of a finger.