释义 |
▪ I. clay, n.|kleɪ| Forms: 1 clǽᵹ, 4 clai, clei, 4–6 cley, 5–6 claie, 5–7 claye, 6 cleye, kley, 4– clay. [Common Teut.: OE. clǽᵹ (ǽ umlaut of á) corresponds to MDu. cleie fem., MLG., LG., Du., and Ger. klei, OFris. klai, mod.Fris. klay, klaey, pointing to an OTeut. *klaijâ- str. fem. (Gothic type *kladdja, ON. *klegg, whence Da. klæg, kleg), f. verbal root kli- (klei-, klai-,) to stick, cleave, with suffix -ja. From same root came *klai-moz, in OE. clám, cloam, earth, potter's clay, with its vb. *klaimjan, in OE. clǽman; see cleam, clam. Outside Teutonic, Gr. has γλοι-, γλι-, in γλοιός, γλίνη sticky matter, γλία glue, L. glū-s, glū-ten (ū for earlier oi), OSlav. glina clay, glénŭ mud.] 1. a. A stiff viscous earth found, in many varieties, in beds or other deposits near the surface of the ground and at various depths below it: it forms with water a tenacious paste capable of being moulded into any shape, which hardens when dried, and forms the material of bricks, tiles, pottery, and ‘earthenware’ generally. Clay consists mainly of aluminium silicate, and is derived mostly from the decomposition of felspathic rocks. The various beds are distinguished geologically as boulder clay, Kimmeridge clay, London clay, Oxford clay, Purbeck clay, etc. Particular kinds of clay are known as brick clay, fatty clay, fire clay, plastic clay, porcelain clay, and potter's clay; pipe-clay, etc.
c1000ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 146 Samia, clæᵹ. c1340Cursor M. 11985 (Trin.) Of cley..made he sparewes twelue. 1382Wyclif Wisdom xv. 7 Of the same clei he made..vesselis in to vse. c1440Promp. Parv. 80 Cley, argilla glis. 1480Caxton Descr. Brit. 5 Whyte clay and reed for to make pottes, crokkes..and othir vessell. 1502Arnolde Chron. (1811) 165 And stoppe dilygently his [an apple-tree's] wounde wyth kley. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 95 b, The Hasell Nuttes..delighteth in claie. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. 163 We have..for scowring our clothes earths and claies; as Walkers clay..little inferior to Sope. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5416/3 Tobacco-Pipe-Clay. 1759Johnson Idler No. 49 ⁋10 Incumbered with stiff clay. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. 199 Trying experiments upon porcelain clays. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. iii. xvi. §2 (1876) 346 Some soils, such as the stiff clays, are better adapted for wheat. 1882Geikie Text-bk. Geol. ii. ii. 81 Pure clay..resulting from the alteration of felspars exposed to atmospheric influences, is white. b. fig. with reference to properties and uses.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 294 Clogged in the claye and slyme of vyce. c1620A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 2 Quhiles I stack in this claye, it pleased God to bring your Majestie hame. 1797Godwin Enquirer i. viii. 74 The pupil is the clay in the hands of the artificer. 1847Tennyson Princ. vii. 312 Tho' he trip and fall He shall not blind his soul with clay. c. clay-with-flints, a mixture of stiff brown or reddish clay with angular flints, found overlying chalk, esp. in southern England; extended to various types of clayflint drift deposits.
1861Hull & Whitaker Geol. Surv. Mem. Sheet. XIII. 55 Above the ‘clay with flints’ there is occasionally a loam or sandy clay. 1908W. Johnson Folk Memory xi. 209 The junction of the Chalk and the overlying Clay-with-flints forms tortuous, tongue-like projections on the geological map. 1960B. W. Sparks Geomorphology vii. 161 The clay-with-flints, strictly speaking a mass of rusty clay with fractured flints but in practice an omnibus term covering a variety of deposits of different types. †2. In early use the tough, sticky nature of the substance appears to have been mainly in view, and the name was applied to other substances of this nature, as to the bitumen of the Vulgate, called in Bible of 1611 ‘slime,’ ‘pitch’, Gen. xi. 3, vi. 14.
a1300Cursor M. 2500 Þe fiue gaue bak..And fell to in a pitt o clay. c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 312 Cleme hit [the ark] with clay comly with-inne. 1382Wyclif Gen. xi. 3 Thei hadden..towȝ cley [1388 pitche, 1611 slime] for syment. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 260 Cley maad with hors or mannes her, and oyle Of tartre, alym, glas, berm, wort, and argoyle. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 187 The toughe cleye of Babilon cauled Bitumen. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xiv. i. 295 Claie made with horsse doong. 3. Used loosely for: Earth, moist earth, mire, mud; esp. the earth covering or enclosing a dead body when buried.
a1300Cursor M. 1080 Þe bodi mith he na gat hide..Þe clay all vp þe bodi kest. c1300Song Yesterd. 70 in E.E.P. (1862) 135 Vr careyns chaunged vndur clay. 1382Wyclif John ix. 6 He spette in to erthe, and made cley of the spotle. 1535Coverdale 2 Sam. xxii. 43 Euen as y⊇ claye of the stretes wil I make them thynne. 1609Ev. Woman in Hum. i. i, in Bullen O. Pl. IV. 313 When the foole is clad in clay. 1808Scott Marm. iii. xxxi, The falcon crest was soiled with clay. 1821Byron Cain ii. i, To sojourn With worms in clay. 4. a. Earth as the material of the human body (cf. Gen. ii. 7); hence, the human body (living or dead) as distinguished from the soul; the earthly or material part of man.
a1300Cursor M. 402 Al gangand best..And adam bath he wroght on clai. 1576Fleming Panoplie Ep. 190 To what purpose then, doth vaine glory inflate and puffe up..this brittle bottle framed out of clay? 1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 4 Arui. Are we not Brothers? Imo. So man and man should be, But Clay and Clay, differs in dignitie. 1707Watts Hymns, Happy the Heart, etc. v, Ere we quite forsake our Clay, Or leave this dark Abode. 1742Young Nt. Th. i. 128 This gross impediment of clay remove. 1798Southey Ballads, St. Patr. Purg. 5 Belike no living hands may pay This office to your lifeless clay. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles iv. x, Well hast thou done, frail child of clay! a1845A. E. Bray Warleigh xiii. (1884) 95 ‘Dressing the clay’—that is, decking the corpse..with various flowers. 1887Stevenson Underwoods ii. ix. 109 They're made of a commoner clay, I suppose, Than a gentleman like me. b. to moisten or wet one's clay: to drink. (humorous.)
1708Brit. Apollo No. 80. 3/1 We were moistening our Clay. 1711Addison Spec. No. 72 ⁋9 To moisten their Clay, and grow immortal by drinking. a1754Fielding New Way, etc. ii. ii, How should he return to dust Who daily wets his clay? 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 119 When his poor old clay was wet with gin. c. Phr. feet of clay (cf. Dan. ii. 33 ‘his feet part of iron and part of clay’): a fundamental weakness in someone supposedly of great merit. Also occas. limbs of clay.
1814Byron Ode to Napoleon 8 Fronts of brass, and feet of clay. 1843Lytton Last of Barons iii. xi. ii. 371 But still the Earl's prosperity was hollow—the statue of brass stood on limbs of clay. 1859Tennyson Idylls 137 They find some stain or blemish in a name of note..And judge all nature from her feet of clay. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xi, in Fortnightly Rev. 1 Aug. 644 The woman..finds that her golden-headed god has got an iron body and feet of clay. 1891Wilde Dorian Gray xv. 269 It is the feet of clay that make the gold of the image precious. 1926T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) ix. ciii. 565, I had to avoid him [sc. Allenby]..lest he show feet of clay. 1952A. Wilson Hemlock & After iii. i. 199 Eric is sad because his idol has feet of clay. 5. The application of clay in sugar-refining. Cf. clay v. 3.
1765Univ. Mag. XXXVII. 320/2 Sugar..which has gone through the operation of three clays. 6. a. Short for clay-pipe: see 9. (colloq.)
[1859Fairholt Tobacco (1876) 173 Such long pipes were reverently termed aldermen in the last age and irreverently yards of clay in the present one.] 1863Ouida Held in Bondage 1 Filthy bird's-eye, smoked in clays. 1871Calverley Verses & Tr., Ode Tobacco, Jones..Daily absorbs a clay After his labours. b. Short for clay pigeon. colloq.
1909in Webster. 1958Spectator 1 Aug. 162/3 Clay pigeons simulated driven grouse and partridges... The unbroken clays curled down among the spectators. 7. attrib. or as adj. Made or consisting of clay (lit., or in sense 4, q.v.).
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §10 Sowe thy peas vpon the cley grounde. 1530Palsgr. 205 Clay wall, paroy dargille. 1624–47Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 205 We..may be turned out of these clay cottages at an hours warning. 1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 204 The weight of a saint's heaven and hell upon his own clay-shoulders. 1673A. Walker Lees Lachrymans 13 The Clay Floor, Mud Wall, and Thatch. 1843Portlock Geol. 106 Clay galls or lumps..occur occasionally in the sandstone. 1854Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. I. 218 Clay stoves are necessarily much more bulky than those made of iron. 1886Stevenson Dr. Jekyll ii. 26 Is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through..its clay continent? 8. Comb. a. attrib. ‘of or made of clay’, as clay-ball, clay-bank, clay-bung, clay-clod, † clay-clot, clay-field, clay-miner, clay-mortar, clay-plug, clay-soil, etc.; b. ‘pertaining to clay, designed to contain clay’, as clay-box, clay-cart, clay-pea; (sense 4) clay-dream, clay-shadow; c. objective, as clay-burning; d. instrumental, as clay-built, clay-daubed, clay-greased, adjs.; (sense 4) clay-bound, clay-dimmed, clay-wrapped, adjs.; e. similative, as clay-colour, clay-coloured adj., clay-like adj.
1849Amer. Phil. Soc. V. 708 *Clay-balls placed in the fire increased the amount of heat.
1839Bailey Festus xiv. (1848) 148 Thou wilt forgive, if *clay-bound mind Can scarce discover that thou art.
1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 229 Our *clay-built tabernacles.
1713Lond. & Country Brew. ii. (1743) 141 The common but considerable Loss that Thousands fall under by *Clay-Bungs.
1875Agric. Holdings Act 38 & 39 Vict. c. 92 §5 *Clay-burning, claying of land, liming of land.
1672–95Brickmakers' Lament. in Roxb. Ballads II. 474 A *clay cart they got..And put Lambart in it.
c1300Relig. Songs (1843) 73 Nu lidh the *clei clot al so the ston.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. (1617) 160 Another doth weare *Clay-Colour.
1659Vulgar Errours censured 5 Clay colour of old was sacred at Nuptials..and not onely Red Sandals were in use..but also *Clay-coloured Shooes.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 492 In þat cofer þat watz *clay daubed.
1637Rutherford Lett. No. 84 (1862) I. 215 That it [our love] fasten not itself on these *clay-dreams, these clay-shadows, and worldly vanities!
1843Knickerbocker XXII. 4 Every shade of green⁓ness is lost in the interminable red *clay-fields. 1909Daily Chron. 11 June 5/5 The working of the extensive clayfield.
1617Hieron Wks. II. 276 When a man is so *clay-like, so stiffe to be wrought vpon. 1823in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 331 Red stiff clay-like loam.
1881Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 81 *Clay Miner. 1909Westm. Gaz. 10 Feb. 7/2 The clay-miners entombed by a fall of silver-sand at Morden clay-pits, near Corfe Castle.
a1722Lisle Observ. Husb. 193 The Burbage-grey, or popling-pea is much sowed in..Somersetshire, and there called the *clay-pea.
1846Greener Sc. Gunnery 104 The crucible is then stopped, by covering the mouth with tempered clay..as soon as the *clay-plugs are sufficiently hard, etc. 9. Special comb.: clay-band, a thin stratum or band of clay; hence clay band ironstone, an earthy variety of Chalybite, one of the commonest ores of iron; clay-bank, a bank of clay; also (U.S.), a horse of a yellowish-brown clayey colour; the colour itself; clay-bird = clay pigeon; clay-box (see quot.); clay-brained a., dull clod-pated; clay court, a lawn tennis court with a clay surface; also ellipt.; clay-cut a., cut in or through clay; clay-eater, U.S. (see quot.); clay-frame, a frame made of clay; applied to a human body (see sense 4); clay-iron, ‘a tool for crowding clay into leaky bore-holes’ (Raymond Mining Gloss.); clay iron-ore, clay ironstone, names given to various iron-ores containing much clay, esp. argillaceous hæmatite; clay-kiln, a kiln for burning clay; clay-land, land in which clay is the predominant constituent of the soil; clay-loam, loam containing a large proportion of clay; clay-maker, -man, one who prepares clay for use in brick-making, etc.; clay-mill, a mill for mixing and tempering clay; clay-modeller, one who makes models of clay; clay-modelling, the art or practice of modelling in clay; clay-pan, (a) Australia, a natural hollow formed of clayey soil and retaining water after rain; (b) U.S., a layer of clay in the soil; clay-pie, a mud-pie; clay pigeon (orig. U.S.), a piece of baked clay or other material, serving as a target in trap-shooting; clay-pipe, a tobacco-pipe made of baked clay (pipe-clay); clay-pit, a pit from which clay is dug; † clay-post, applied to the human body; clay-puddle, clay wrought with water to form a water-tight lining for reservoirs, etc. (see puddle); clay-soil, soil composed chiefly or wholly of clay; clay-weed, the Colt's-foot (Tussilago Farfara); † clay-work, work in baked clay, pottery, etc.; clay-works, works in which clay is prepared for use; so clay-worker, clay-working. See also clay-cold, clay-slate, clay-stone.
1853Pharmac. Jrnl. XIII. 118 *Clay-band and ball ironstone.
1755in L. H. Gipson Lewis Evans (1939) 172 Kentucke..has high *Clay Banks. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxiii, [A mare] of that dun-yellowish colour known as ‘clay-bank’. 1853Oregonian (Portland) 5 Nov. 1/6 Getting off an' hitching his ole clay-bank to a swinging limb.
1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 392/1 There were several *clay-bird matches. 1909Westm. Gaz. 22 Mar. 10/1 The Stock Exchange clay-bird shooting competition.
1612Sturtevant Metallica (1854) 101 The Presse-moulde consisteth of these general parts. 1. Two *clay-boxes.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 250 Why thou *Clay-brayn'd Guts, thou Knotty-pated Foole.
1916Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 4 July 9/3 For the third time since the introduction of the national *clay court tennis tournament the championship in the men's singles was captured by a star from California. 1958L. Hoad My Game 224 Get practice on as many different courts as possible. Work out for yourself how the change from grass to clay or to concrete will affect your game. 1964R. Laver How to play Winning Tennis ix. 73 On very soft clay courts where the ball leaves a mark as big as a footprint, I found that it was common for puffs of chalk to rise as a ball landed.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xli, The *clay-cut channels of the arroyos.
a1860Ida May in Bartlett Dict. Amer., *Clay-eaters, a miserable set of people inhabiting some of the Southern States, who subsist chiefly on turpentine whiskey, and appease their craving for more substantial food by filling their stomachs with a kind of aluminous earth which abounds everywhere..They are looked down upon by the negroes with a contempt which they return by a hearty hatred.
1614T. White Sapphicks in Farr. S.P. Jas. I (1848) 358 Here's thy *clay-frame,—God, doe with it thy pleasure; Here's thine owne semblant by my sinnes abused.
1888J. Prestwich Geol. II. 94 When instead of the *clay-iron-ores the shales contain iron-pyrites.
1843Portlock Geol. 226 *Clay-ironstone.
1707Mortimer Husb. vi. 73 This sort of Marle did very well upon *Clay Lands. 1949W. G. Hoskins Midland England i. 2 Claylands that rarely stand six hundred feet above the sea.
1662Gerbier Princ. 21 If the *Clay-makers did beat the Clay as it ought to be.
1440Promp. Parv. 114/1 Dauber, or *cleymann, argillarius, bituminarius.
1881Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 55 *Clay, Ornamental Modeller.
1898Westm. Gaz. 5 Jan. 2/3 *Clay⁓modelling talent.
1838Colman Rep. Agric. Mass. 78 This drain is four feet wide at the top, and goes down some small depth into the *clay pan. 1875J. Forrest Explor. Australia v. 260 We travelled..over stony plains; many clay-pans with water, but no feed. 1890Melbourne Argus 2 Aug. 13/3 The baked surface of the claypan. 1930A. Groom Merry Xmas xvii. 127 The claypan was torn up into a soft powder from the rushing and driving of thousands of cattle across it. 1954B. Miles Stars my Blanket xxiv. 216 Between the sandhills there were claypans, flat and hard and white.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, ccxxvi, Shee's gone to Schoole; her Cross-row and Crow feet Hinder the Huswiferye of her *Clay-pies.
1888Outing (U.S.) Sept. 501 He had broken innumerable glass balls and ‘*clay pigeons’ at a trap. 1895Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 15 Sept. 958 The Anglo-American Ligowsky Clay Pigeon Traps. 1958Clay pigeon [see sense 6 b].
1876Modern Christianity 19 We made ourselves..snug..over a couple of long *clay pipes.
c1440Promp. Parv. 80 *Cleypytte, argillarium. 1483Cath. Angl. 65 A Clapitte. 1611Cotgr., Argiliere, a clay-pit, or, a plot wherein Potters clay is gotten.
1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 4 How many hundred hours in one summer doth our breathing *clay-post skip over.
1828H. Steuart Planter's G. 499 A good wall of well-made *clay-puddle.
1878Britten & Holland Plant-n. *Clayweed, Tussilago Farfara, from its partiality to clay soils.
1612Sturtevant Metallica (1854) 82 Tiles and bricks and all other *clayworks. 1909Daily Chron. 11 June 5/5 Showing them over the clayworks.
1902Ibid. 21 May 6/3 The British Institute of *Clayworkers.
1900Engineering Mag. XIX. 793/1 (heading) The *Clay-Working Industry of the Pacific Coast. ▪ II. clay, v. trans.|kleɪ| [f. prec. n.] 1. To treat with clay; to cover, smear, or plaster with clay.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §139 Claye it, and bynde it. 1560Whitehorne Ord. Souldiours (1573) 45 a, A very good claye, for to lute or clay, and joyne violles, flagons of glasse, etc. 1663P. Henry Diary & Lett. (1882) 135 April 26 Dwelling-house..clay'd for John Green. 1713J. Warder True Amazons 155 When your Mead is almost cold, Tun it up, Clay it down, and let it stand. 1759B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng., Dorset I. 41 Like an Oven, clayed round in a very artful Manner. 2. To dress (sandy soil) with clay, mix clay with.
1697Phil. Trans. XIX. 413 Claying a very light Sandy Soil. 1850Kingsley Alt. Locke xxv. (1874) 185 How he was draining, claying, breaking up old moorlands. 3. To treat (sugar) with clay in refining.
1703W. Dampier Voy. N. Holland III. ii. 55 All the Sugar that is made here is clay'd. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 127 Clay is put upon the tops of the conical pots in which the sugar has granulated, which allows water to percolate through, and thus drain off the last remains of the molasses. This is called claying the sugars. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 943. 4. Mining. To line the blast hole with clay to prevent the access of water to the explosive: cf. claying-bar. ▪ III. clay dial. f. clee, claw, hoof; var. of cly, v. |