clog
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /klɒɡ/
ipa: /klɑɡ/
ipa: /klɔɡ/
rhymes: -ɒɡ
Forms: form: clogs
Etymology: Unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog (“weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement”). Perhaps of North Germanic origin and derived from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“lump, mass, clasp”); compare Old Norse klugu, klogo (“knotty tree log”), Dutch klomp.
Senses: examples: text: Dutch people rarely wear clogs these days.
text: […] as to the poor—just look at them when they come crowding about the church-doors on the occasion of a marriage or a funeral, clattering in clogs; […]
ref: 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Donne’s Exodus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 117:
text: She stomped up the stairs. Her clogs slammed against the pine boards of the staircase and shook the house.
ref: 2002, Alice Sebold, chapter 5, in The Lovely Bones, Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, page 92:
glosses: A type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.
examples: text: The plumber cleared the clog from the drain.
glosses: A blockage.
examples: text: I let him in this morning. He lost one of his clogs.
ref: 1987, Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I, spoken by Withnail:
glosses: A shoe of any type.
examples: text: Yet as a Dog committed close / For some offence, by chance breaks loose, / And quits his Clog; but all in vain, / He still draws after him his Chain.
ref: 1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras. Canto III.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
text: A clog of lead was round my feet / A band of pain across my brow;
ref: 1855, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Letters”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, page 115:
glosses: A weight, such as a log or block of wood, attached to a person or animal to hinder motion.
examples: text: The grand Conſpirator, Abbot of Weſtminster, / With clog of Conſcience, and ſowre Melancholly / Hath yeelded up his body to the graue;
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 45:
text: All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and institutions of England, are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression.
ref: 1777, Edmund Burke, A Letter from Edmund Burke: Esq; one of the representatives in Parliament for the city of Bristol, to John Farr and John Harris, Esqrs. sheriffs of that city, on the Affairs of America, London: J. Dodsley, page 8:
text: By the same rule, they must send your mamma her travelling expences, miss; she can't have the clog of a couple of grown daughters at her heels without money in her pocket.
ref: 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 69–70:
text: If we were as rich as your uncle, I should feel it to be both a duty and a pleasure to keep an elegant table; but limited means are a sad clog to one’s wishes.
ref: 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 56, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC:
glosses: That which hinders or impedes motion; an encumbrance, restraint, or impediment of any kind.
Derived terms: beclog
clever clogs
clog almanac
clog dance
clogger
clogless
cloglike
clogmaker
clogmaking
clogs to clogs in three generations
clog wog
clogwood
pop one's clogs
shot-clog
Yule clog