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clay
1[ kley ]
noun
- a natural earthy material that is plastic when wet, consisting essentially of hydrated silicates of aluminum: used for making bricks, pottery, etc.
- earth; mud.
- earth, especially regarded as the material from which the human body was formed.
- the human body, especially as distinguished from the spirit or soul; the flesh.
- human character as estimated according to fineness of constitution, endowments, etc.:
The saints and heroes seem of a different clay from most of us.
verb (used with object)
- to treat or mix with clay; cover, daub, or fill with clay.
- to filter through clay.
Clay
2[ kley ]
noun
- Bertha M. Charlotte Monica Braeme, 1836–84, English author: originator of a long series of romantic novels.
- Cassius Marcellus, 1810–1903, U.S. antislavery leader and diplomat.
- Cassius Marcellus, Jr., original name of Muhammad Ali.
- Henry, 1777–1852, U.S. statesman and orator.
- Lucius (Du·Bi·gnon) [doo-bin-, yon], 1897–1978, U.S. general.
- a male given name.
Clay
1/ kleɪ /
noun
- ClayCassius Cassius See Muhammad Ali
- ClayHenry17771852MUSPOLITICS: statesmanPOLITICS: orator Henry. 1777–1852, US statesman and orator; secretary of state (1825–29)
clay
2/ kleɪ /
noun
- a very fine-grained material that consists of hydrated aluminium silicate, quartz, and organic fragments and occurs as sedimentary rocks, soils, and other deposits. It becomes plastic when moist but hardens on heating and is used in the manufacture of bricks, cement, ceramics, etc figuline
- earth or mud in general
- poetic.the material of the human body
verb
- tr to cover or mix with clay
clay
/ klā /
- A stiff, sticky sedimentary material that is soft and pliable when wet and consists mainly of various silicates of aluminum. Clay particles are smaller than silt, having a diameter less than 0.0039 mm. Clay is widely used to make bricks, pottery, and tiles.
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Derived Forms
- ˈclayey, adjective
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Other Words From
- clay·like adjective
- un·clayed adjective
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of clay1
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Idioms and Phrases
In addition to the idiom beginning with clay , also see feet of clay .Discover More
Example Sentences
When you melt the clay, you destroy the statue but you don’t destroy the clay from which the statue is formed.
The Millennium engineers called for a clay covering to protect the embankment from erosion, as well as closely monitoring the project.
The water was yellowish, thick, full of clay, stinking of oil and sewage.
What’s new is breaking the clay down to a nanoparticle level and getting a liquid substance that can be easily sprayed onto land.
He explains that the dinos had been walking on a surface of clay.
But, together, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun delayed the Civil War for 40 years.
Clay engineered the morally indefensible Missouri Compromise.
From the 1820s to the 1850s, the upper house was dominated by Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John Calhoun.
It just changed into something quite dark and unattractive with Clay, and was a unique moment in my artistic career.
Horace was athletic and clever, known, probably apocryphally, as the fastest cotton picker in Clay County.
The British had fired 143 cannon shot into the fort before the arrival of Gen. Clay.
Only the laborers on the plantations smoke small clay pipes.
They use those with long, straight stems, and both their clay and porcelain pipes are of the finest form and finish.
Papier maché buttons came in with Henry Clay's patent in 1778.
It is the custom in the English forts to make every Indian who comes to trade, a present of a clay pipe filled with tobacco.
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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