Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLOVE, n.¹ [D. kloof. See Cleave.]

A cleft; a fissure; a gap; a ravine. This word, though properly an appellative, is not often used as such in English; but it is appropriated to particular places, that are real clefts, or which appear as such; as, the Clove of Kaaterskill, in the state of New-York, and the Stony Clove. It is properly a Dutch word. – Journ. of Science.

CLOVE, n.² [Sax. clufe; Fr. clou; Sp. clavo; Port. cravo; from L. clavus, a nail; so called from its resemblance to a nail. So in D. kruidnagel, herb-nail, or spice-nail.]

1. A very pungent aromatic spice, the flower of the clove-tree, Caryophyllus, a native of the Molucca isles. The tree grows to the size of the laurel, and its bark resembles that of the olive. No verdure is seen under it. At the extremities of its branches are produced vast numbers of flowers, which are at first white, then green, and at last red and hard. These are called cloves. – Encyc.
2. [from cleave.] The parts into which garlic separates, when the outer skin is removed. – Tate.
3. A certain weight; seven pounds of wool; eight pounds of cheese or butter. [Not used in America.]

CLOVE, v. [pret. of Cleave. Obs.]

– Spenser.

CLOVE'-GIL-LY-FLOW-ER, n.

A species of Dianthus, bearing a beautiful flower, cultivated in gardens; called also Carnation pink. Note. Some writers suppose that gilly-flower should be written July-flower. But qu. is it not a corruption of the French girofle, clou de girofle, cloves; giroflée, a gilliflower; giroflier, a stock gillyflower; L. caryophyllus. Chaucer wrote cloue gilofre. Cant. Tales, 13692. The Italians write garofano, probably for garofalo; Arm. genofles, genoflen. Johnson supposes the plant so called from the smell of the flower, resembling that of cloves; but it is probably from its shape, the nail-flower, as in Dutch. [See Clove.]

CLO'VEN, pp. [of Cleave.]

Divided; parted; [pronounced clovn.]

CLO'VEN-FOOT-ED, or CLO'VEN-HOOF-ED, a.

Having the foot or hoof divided into two parts, as the ox; bisulcous.

CLO'VER, or CLO'VER-GRASS, n. [Sax. clæfer-wyrt, clover-wort; G. klee; D. klaver; Dan. klever or klee. The Saxon word is rendered also marigold and violet. The Dutch word signifies a club. The name then signifies club-grass, club-wort, L. clava, from its flower. Dan. klebber, to cleave, to cling.]

A genus of plants, called Trifolium, trefoil, or three-leafed, Fr. trefle. The species are numerous. The red clover is generally cultivated for fodder and for enriching land. The white clover is also excellent food for cattle, either green or dry, and from its flowers the bee collects no small portion of its stores of honey. To live in clover, is to live luxuriously, or in abundance; a phrase borrowed from the luxuriant growth of clover, and the feeding of cattle in clover.

CLO'VER-ED, a.

Covered with clover. – Thomson.

CLOWN, n. [L. colonus, a husbandman.]

A countryman; a rustic: hence, one who has the manners of a rustic; a churl; a man of coarse manners; an ill-bred man. – Sidney. Dryden. Swift.

CLOWN'AGE, a.

The manners of a clown. [Not in use.] – B. Jonson.

CLOWN'ER-Y, n.

Ill-breeding; rustic behavior; rudeness of manners. [Little used.] L'Estrange.

CLOWN'ISH, a.

1. Containing clowns; consisting of rustics; as, a clownish neighborhood. – Dryden.
2. Coarse; hard; rugged; rough; as, clownish hands. – Spenser.
3. Of rough manners; ill-bred; as, a clownish fellow.
4. Clumsy; awkward; as, a clownish gait. – Prior.

CLOWN'ISH-LY, adv.

In the manner of clowns; coarsely; rudely.

CLOWN'ISH-NESS, n.

The manners of a clown; rusticity; coarseness or rudeness of behavior; incivility; awkwardness. – Dryden. Locke.

CLOY, v.t. [from Fr. clouer, or the root of the word, the L. cludo, claudo; coinciding in elements with glut.]

1. Strictly, to fill; to glut. Hence, to satisfy, as the appetite; to satiate. And as the appetite when satisfied rejects additional food, hence, to fill to lothing; to surfeit. Who can cloy the hungry edge of appetite / By bare imagination of a feast? – Shak.
2. To spike up a gun; to drive a spike into the vent. – Bailey. Johnson.
3. In farriery, to prick a horse in shoeing. – Ash. [In the two latter senses, I believe the word is little used, and not at all in America.]

CLOY'ED, pp.

Filled; glutted; filled to satiety and lothing; spiked; pricked in shoeing.

CLOY'ING, ppr.

Filling; filling to satiety, or disgust.

CLOY'LESS, a.

That can not cloy, or fill to satiety.

CLOY'MENT, n.

Surfeit; repletion beyond the demands of appetite. [Little used.] Shak.

CLUB, n. [W. clopa, clwpa, coinciding with clap, a lump, and clob, clobyn; G. klöpfel; D. klaver; Sw. klubba; Dan. klubbe; L. clava. The sense is probably a knob or lump, W. llwb, llob, whence lubber. It is evidently connected with cleave, to stick or cling, Dan. klebber.]

1. Properly, a stick or piece of wood, with one end thicker and heavier than the other, and no larger than can be wielded with the hand.
2. A thick heavy stick, that may be managed with the hand, and used for beating, or defense. In early ages, a club was a principal instrument of war and death; a fact remarkably perpetuated in the accounts which history relates of the achievements of Hercules with his club. Plin. lib. 7, cap. 56. This use of the club was the origin of the scepter, as a badge of royalty.
3. The name of one of the suits of cards; so named from its figure.
4. A collection or assembly of men; usually a select number of friends met for social or literary purposes. Any small private meeting of persons. – Dryden.
5. A collection of expenses; the expenses of a company, or unequal expenses of individuals, united for the purpose of finding the average or proportion of each individual. Hence the share of each individual in joint expenditure is called his club, that is, his proportion of a club, or joint charge.
6. Contribution; joint charge. – Hudibras. Club of Hercules. The story of Hercules with his club originated in the use of clubs, as weapons of war and other achievements, among rude nations, before the invention of other instruments and the use of iron. Hence striking, beating, was the first mode of killing; and hence smite and slay, properly signifying to strike, came to signify to kill. Hercules was the leader of a savage band, who wielded the heaviest club; and hence the club was the origin of the scepter, which is in the shape of a club, coinciding with Latin scipio. Any bold warrior at the head of a predatory band was a Hercules.

CLUB, v.i. [W. clapiaw, to form into a lump.]

1. To join, as a number of individuals, to the same end; to contribute separate powers to one end, purpose or effect. Till grosser atoms, tumbling in the stream Of fancy, madly met, and clubbed into a dream. – Dryden.
2. To pay an equal proportion of a common reckoning or charge.

CLUB, v.t.

1. To unite different sums of expense, in a common sum or collection, to find the average, that each contributor may pay an equal share. – Pope.
2. In common parlance, to raise or turn uppermost the breech or club of a musket; as, the soldiers clubbed their muskets.

CLUB'BED, pp.

1. Collected into a sum and averaged, as different expenses.
2. United to one end or effect.
3. Shaped like a club. – Asiat. Researches, v. 213.
4. Having the breech turned upward, as a musket.
5. Heavy like a club. Chaucer.

CLUB'BER, or CLUB'BIST, n.

One who belongs to a party, club or association. – Burke.

CLUB'BING, ppr.

Joining in a club; uniting to a common end.