clay
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biblical
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weaponry
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gleyH-
Proto-Indo-European *-ós
Proto-Indo-European *gloyHós
Proto-Germanic *klajjaz
Proto-West Germanic *klaij
Old English clǣġ
Middle English cley
English clay
From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- (“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.
Inflected forms:
form: clays
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: clays
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: claying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: clayed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: clayed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: 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 […]
gloss: An earth material with ductile qualities.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: The French Open is played on clay.
gloss: The material of the human body.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: From clay we are made.
Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.
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.
gloss: A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: A clay pipe for smoking tobacco.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: A clay pigeon.
pos: noun
tags: informal
uncountable
usually
examples: We went shooting clays at the weekend.
gloss: Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims.
pos: noun
tags: Internet
humorous
uncountable
usually
examples: Vilnius is rightful Polish clay.
gloss: A moth, Mythimna ferrago
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
gloss: To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To purify using clay.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies,
They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.
The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.
Antonyms: soul
spirit
Related words: alluvium
Derived words: 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
claypit
clay pit
clay shale
clay slate
clayster
claystone
clay tablet
Clayton
clayware
claywork
common clay
Draycott in the Clay
feet of clay
fiber clay
fire clay
Holton le Clay
iron clay
light clay
make bricks without 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
clay up
Translations: