clay
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: klā
ipa: /kleɪ/
ipa: [kl̥eɪ]
rhymes: -eɪ
Forms: form: clays
Etymology: From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to glue, paste, stick together”).
Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.
Senses: examples: text: Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]
ref: 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377, column 2:
glosses: A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
glosses: An earth material with ductile qualities.
examples: text: The French Open is played on clay.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
tennis
glosses: A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
examples: text: From clay we are made.
text: Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 10:8-9:
text: But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 64:8:
topics: biblical
lifestyle
religion
glosses: The material of the human body.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
glosses: A clay pipe for smoking tobacco.
examples: text: We went shooting clays at the weekend.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: A clay pigeon.
examples: text: Vilnius is rightful Polish clay.
glosses: Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims.
glosses: A moth, Mythimna ferrago
Hyponyms: kaolin
kaoline
Derived terms: ball clay
boulder clay
brickclay
china clay
China clay
claybank
Clay Banks
claybed
clay cake
clay-cold
clay-colored thrush
clay court
claycourt
clay courter
clay eater
clayen
clayey
clayfield
clayhead
claying
clayish
claykicker
Clay Lake
clayless
claylike
claymation
claypan
clay pigeon
clay pit
claypit
clay shale
clay slate
clayster
claystone
Clayton
clayware
claywork
common clay
Draycott in the Clay
feet of clay
fiber clay
fire clay
Holton le Clay
iron clay
light clay
modeling clay
modelling clay
nanoclay
nonclay
organoclay
paper clay
pipeclay
potter's clay
salt clay
underclay
vitrified clay pipe
wet one's clay
yard of clay
Related terms: alluvium