Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Clay
Clay
(klā)
, Noun.
[AS.
clǣg
; akin to LG. klei
, D. klei
, and perh. to AS. clām
clay, L. glus
, gluten
glue, Gr. γλοιόσ
glutinous substance, E. glue
. Cf. Clog
.] 1.
A soft earth, which is plastic, or may be molded with the hands, consisting of hydrous silicate of aluminium. It is the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.
2.
(Poetry & Script.)
Earth in general, as representing the elementary particles of the human body; hence, the human body as formed from such particles.
I also am formed out of the
clay
. Job xxxiii. 6.
The earth is covered thick with other
Which her own
clay
,Which her own
clay
shall cover. Byron.
Bowlder clay
. See under
– Bowlder
. Brick clay
, the common clay, containing some iron, and therefore turning red when burned.
– Clay cold
, cold as clay or earth; lifeless; inanimate.
– Clay ironstone
, an ore of iron consisting of the oxide or carbonate of iron mixed with clay or sand.
– Clay marl
, a whitish, smooth, chalky clay.
– Clay mill
, a mill for mixing and tempering clay; a pug mill.
– Clay pit
, a pit where clay is dug.
– Clay slate
(Min.)
, argillaceous schist; argillite.
– Fatty clays
, clays having a greasy feel; they are chemical compounds of water, silica, and aluminia, as
– halloysite
, bole
, etc. Fire clay
, a variety of clay, entirely free from lime, iron, or an alkali, and therefore infusible, and used for fire brick.
– Porcelain clay
, a very pure variety, formed directly from the decomposition of feldspar, and often called
– kaolin
. Potter’s clay
, a tolerably pure kind, free from iron.
Clay
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Clayed
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Claying
.] 1.
To cover or manure with clay.
2.
To clarify by filtering through clay, as sugar.
Webster 1828 Edition
Clay
CLAY
, n.1.
The name of certain substances which are mixtures of silex and alumin, sometimes with lime, magnesia, alkali and metallic oxyds. A species of earths which are firmly coherent, weighty, compact, and hard when dry, but stiff, viscid and ductile when moist, and smooth to the touch; not readily diffusible in water, and when mixed, not readily subsiding in it. They contract by heat. Clays absorb water greedily, and become soft, but are so tenacious as to be molded into any shape, and hence they are the materials of bricks and various vessels, domestic and chimical.2.
In poetry and in scripture, earth in general.3.
In scripture, clay is used to express frailty, liableness to decay and destruction.They that dwell in houses of clay. Job. 4.
CLAY
,Verb.
T.
1.
To cover or manure with clay.2.
To purify and whiten with clay, as sugar.Definition 2024
Clay
Clay
English
Proper noun
Clay
- A surname.
- A male given name transferred from the surname.
- 1968 Patrick White, Clay, in The Burnt Ones, Penguin Books, page 114:
- When he was about five years old some kids asked Clay why his mother had called him that. And he did not know. But began to wonder.
- 1968 Patrick White, Clay, in The Burnt Ones, Penguin Books, page 114:
- A diminutive of the male given name Clayton.
clay
clay
English
Clay in Estonia
Noun
clay (usually uncountable, plural clays)
- A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
- 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter I:
- Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […].
- 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter I:
- An earth material with ductile qualities.
- (tennis) A tennis court surface.
- The French Open is played on clay.
- (biblical) The material of the human body.
- 1611, Old Testament, King James Version, Job 10:8-9:
- Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.
- 1611, Old Testament, King James Version, Isaiah 64:8:
- 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.
- 1611, Old Testament, King James Version, Job 10:8-9:
- (geology) A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
- (firearms, informal) A clay pigeon.
- We went shooting clays at the weekend.
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from clay
Translations
mineral substance
|
|
tennis court surface
See also
Verb
clay (third-person singular simple present clays, present participle claying, simple past and past participle clayed)
- (transitive) To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
- (transitive, of sugar) To purify using clay.
- 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.
- 1809, Jonathan Williams, On the Process of Claying Sugar, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 6.
- 1985, Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835, page 200,
- The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.
- 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,
References
- ↑ Krueger 1982; Merriam-Webster 1974.
- Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter volume 11, Number 1. (etymology)
- “clay” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.
- Clay, New Webster Dictionary of English Language, 1980 edition.