Clownery Clown"er·y (-ẽr*ȳ)
noun Clownishness. L'Estrange.
Clownish Clown"ish adjective Of or resembling a clown, or characteristic of a clown; ungainly; awkward. "
Clownish hands."
Spenser. "
Clownish mimic."
Prior. --
Clown"ish*ly ,
adverb Syn. -- Coarse; rough; clumsy; awkward; ungainly; rude; uncivil; ill-bred; boorish; rustic; untutored.
Clownishness Clown"ish·ness noun The manners of a clown; coarseness or rudeness of behavior. That plainness which the alamode people call clownishness .
Locke.
Cloy Cloy (kloi)
transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Cloyed (kloid);
present participle & verbal noun Cloying .] [ Middle English
cloer to nail up, French
clouer , from Old French
clo nail, French
clou , from Latin
clavus nail. Confer 3d
Clove .]
1. To fill or choke up; to stop up; to clog. [ Obsolete]
The duke's purpose was to have cloyed the harbor by sinking ships, laden with stones.
Speed.
2. To glut, or satisfy, as the appetite; to satiate; to fill to loathing; to surfeit. [ Who can] cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?
Shak.
He sometimes cloys his readers instead of satisfying.
Dryden.
3. To penetrate or pierce; to wound. Which, with his cruel tusk, him deadly cloyed .
Spenser.
He never shod horse but he cloyed him.
Bacon.
4. To spike, as a cannon. [ Obsolete]
Johnson. 5. To stroke with a claw. [ Obsolete]
Shak.
Cloyless Cloy"less adjective That does not cloy. Shak.
Cloyment Cloy"ment noun Satiety. [ Obsolete]
Shak.
Club Club (klŭb)
noun [ Confer Icelandic
klubba ,
klumba , club,
klumbufōir a clubfoot, SW.
klubba club, Danish
klump lump,
klub a club, German
klumpen clump,
kolben club, and English
clump .]
1. A heavy staff of wood, usually tapering, and wielded with the hand; a weapon; a cudgel. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs ;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle.
Shak.
2. [ Confer the Spanish name
bastos, and Spanish
baston staff, club.]
Any card of the suit of cards having a figure like the trefoil or clover leaf. ( plural ) The suit of cards having such figure. 3. An association of persons for the promotion of some common object, as literature, science, politics, good fellowship, etc.; esp. an association supported by equal assessments or contributions of the members. They talked
At wine, in clubs , of art, of politics.
Tennyson.
He [ Goldsmith] was one of the nine original members of that celebrated fraternity which has sometimes been called the Literary Club , but which has always disclaimed that epithet, and still glories in the simple name of the Club .
Macaulay.
4. A joint charge of expense, or any person's share of it; a contribution to a common fund. They laid down the club .
L'Estrange.
We dined at a French house, but paid ten shillings for our part of the club .
Pepys.
Club law ,
government by violence; lynch law; anarchy. Addison. - Club moss (Botany) ,
an evergreen mosslike plant, much used in winter decoration. The best know species is Lycopodium clavatum , but other Lycopodia are often called by this name. The spores form a highly inflammable powder. --
Club root (Botany) ,
a disease of cabbages, by which the roots become distorted and the heads spoiled. --
Club topsail (Nautical) ,
a kind of gaff topsail, used mostly by yachts having a fore-and-aft rig. It has a short "club" or "jack yard" to increase its spread.
Club Club (klŭb)
transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Clubbed (klŭbd);
present participle & verbal noun Clubbing .]
1. To beat with a club. 2. (Mil.) To throw, or allow to fall, into confusion. To club a battalion implies a temporary inability in the commanding officer to restore any given body of men to their natural front in line or column.
Farrow.
3. To unite, or contribute, for the accomplishment of a common end; as, to club exertions. 4. To raise, or defray, by a proportional assesment; as, to club the expense. To club a musket (Mil.) ,
to turn the breach uppermost, so as to use it as a club.
Club Club intransitive verb 1. To form a club; to combine for the promotion of some common object; to unite. Till grosser atoms, tumbling in the stream
Of fancy, madly met, and clubbed into a dream.
Dryden.
2. To pay on equal or proportionate share of a common charge or expense; to pay for something by contribution. The owl, the raven, and the bat,
Clubbed for a feather to his hat.
Swift.
3. (Nautical) To drift in a current with an anchor out.
Club-rush Club"-rush` noun (Botany) A rushlike plant, the reed mace or cat-tail, or some species of the genus Scirpus . See Bulrush .
Club-shaped Club"-shaped adjective Enlarged gradually at the end, as the antennĉ of certain insects.
Clubbable Club"ba·ble adjective Suitable for membership in a club; sociable. [ Humorous.]
G. W. Curtis.
Clubbed Clubbed adjective Shaped like a club; grasped like, or used as, a club. Skelton.
Clubber Club"ber noun 1. One who clubs. 2. A member of a club. [ R.]
Massinger.
Clubbish Club"bish adjective 1. Rude; clownish. [ Obsolete]
2. Disposed to club together; as, a clubbish set.
Clubbist Club"bist noun A member of a club; a frequenter of clubs. [ R.]
Burke.
Clubfist Club"fist` noun 1. A large, heavy fist. 2. A coarse, brutal fellow. [ Obsolete]
Mir. for Mag.
Clubfisted Club"fist`ed adjective Having a large fist. Howell.
Clubfoot Club"foot noun [
Club +
foot .]
(Medicine) A short, variously distorted foot; also, the deformity, usually congenital, which such a foot exhibits; talipes.
Clubfooted Club"foot`ed adjective Having a clubfoot.
Clubhand Club"hand` noun (Medicine) A short, distorted hand; also, the deformity of having such a hand.
Clubhaul Club"haul` transitive verb (Nautical) To put on the other tack by dropping the lee anchor as soon as the wind is out of the sails (which brings the vessel's head to the wind), and by cutting the cable as soon as she pays off on the other tack. Clubhauling is attempted only in an exigency.
Clubhouse Club"house` noun A house occupied by a club.
Clubroom Club"room` noun The apartment in which a club meets. Addison.
Cluck Cluck intransitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Clucked ;
p pr. & verbal noun Clucking .] [ Anglo-Saxon
cloccian ; confer Dutch
klokken , German
glucken ,
glucksen , LG.
klukken , Danish
klukke ; all probably of imitative origin.]
To make the noise, or utter the call, of a brooding hen. Ray.
Cluck Cluck transitive verb To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens. She, poor hen, fond of no second brood,
Has clucked three to the wars.
Shak.
Cluck Cluck noun 1. The call of a hen to her chickens. 2. A click. See 3d Click , 2.
Clucking Cluck"ing noun The noise or call of a brooding hen.
Clue Clue (klū)
noun [ See
Clew ,
noun ]
A ball of thread; a thread or other means of guidance. Same as Clew . You have wound a goodly clue .
Shak.
This clue once found unravels all the rest.
Pope.
Serve as clues to guide us into further knowledge.
Locke.
Clum Clum (klŭm)
interj. Silence; hush. [ Obsolete]
Chaucer.
Clumber Clum"ber (klŭm"bẽr)
noun [ Named from the estate of the Duke of Newcastle.]
(Zoology) A kind of field spaniel, with short legs and stout body, which, unlike other spaniels, hunts silently.
Clump Clump (klŭmp)
noun [ Confer Dutch
klomp lump, German
klump ,
klumpen , Danish
klump , Swedish
klump ; perhaps akin to Latin
globus , English
globe . Confer
Club .]
1. An unshaped piece or mass of wood or other substance. 2. A cluster; a group; a thicket. A clump of shrubby trees.
Hawthorne.
3. The compressed clay of coal strata. Brande & C.
Clump Clump transitive verb To arrange in a clump or clumps; to cluster; to group. Blackmore.
Clump Clump intransitive verb To tread clumsily; to clamp. [ Prov. Eng.]
Halliwell.
Clumper Clump"er transitive verb [ Confer German
klümpern to clod. See
Clump ,
noun ]
To form into clumps or masses. [ Obsolete]
Vapors . . . clumpered in balls of clouds.
Dr. H. More.
Clumps Clumps noun A game in which questions are asked for the purpose of enabling the questioners to discover a word or thing previously selected by two persons who answer the questions; -- so called because the players take sides in two "clumps" or groups, the "clump" which guesses the word winning the game.
Clumpy Clump"y adjective [ From
Clump ,
noun ]
Composed of clumps; massive; shapeless. Leigh Hunt.
Clumsily Clum"si·ly adverb In a clumsy manner; awkwardly; as, to walk clumsily .
Clumsiness Clum"si·ness noun The quality of being clumsy. The drudging part of life is chiefly owing to clumsiness and ignorance.
Collier.
Clumsy Clum"sy adjective [
Compar. Clumsier ;
superl. Clumsiest .] [ Middle English
clumsed benumbed, from
clumsen to be benumbed; confer Icelandic
klumsa lockjaw, dial. Swedish
klummsen benumbed with cold. Confer 1st
Clam , and 1st
Clamp .]
1. Stiff or benumbed, as with cold. [ Obsolete]
2. Without skill or grace; wanting dexterity, nimbleness, or readiness; stiff; awkward, as if benumbed; unwieldy; unhandy; hence; ill-made, misshapen, or inappropriate; as, a clumsy person; a clumsy workman; clumsy fingers; a clumsy gesture; a clumsy excuse. But thou in clumsy verse, unlicked, unpointed,
Hast shamefully defied the Lord's anointed.
Dryden.
Syn. -- See
Awkward .
Clunch Clunch noun [ Perh. from
clinch to make fast]
1. (Mining) Indurated clay. See Bind , noun , 3. 2. One of the hard beds of the lower chalk. Dana.
Clung Clung imperfect & past participle of Cling .
Clung Clung adjective [ Propast participle p. from Middle English
clingen to wither. See
Cling ,
intransitive verb ]
Wasted away; shrunken. [ Obsolete]
Cluniac Clu"ni·ac noun (Eccl. Hist.) A monk of the reformed branch of the Benedictine Order, founded in 912 at Cluny (or Clugny) in France. -- Also used as adjective
Cluniacensian Clu`ni·a·cen"sian adjective Cluniac.
Clupeoid Clu"pe·oid adjective [ Latin
clupea a kind of fish, New Latin , generic name of the herring +
-oid .]
(Zoology) Of or pertaining to the Herring family.
Cluster Clus"ter (klŭs"tẽr)
noun [ Anglo-Saxon
cluster ,
clyster ; confer LG.
kluster (also Swedish & Danish
klase a cluster of grapes, Dutch
klissen to be entangled?.)]
1. A number of things of the same kind growing together; a bunch. Her deeds were like great clusters of ripe grapes,
Which load the bunches of the fruitful vine.
Spenser.
2. A number of similar things collected together or lying contiguous; a group; as, a cluster of islands. "
Cluster of provinces."
Motley. 3. A number of individuals grouped together or collected in one place; a crowd; a mob. As bees . . .
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters .
Milton.
We loved him; but, like beasts
And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters ,
Who did hoot him out o' the city.
Shak.
Cluster Clus"ter intransitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Clustered ;
present participle & verbal noun Clustering .]
To grow in clusters or assemble in groups; to gather or unite in a cluster or clusters. His sunny hair
Cluster'd about his temples, like a god's.
Tennyson.
The princes of the country clustering together.
Foxe.
Cluster Clus"ter transitive verb To collect into a cluster or clusters; to gather into a bunch or close body. Not less the bee would range her cells, . . .
The foxglove cluster dappled bells.
Tennyson.
Or from the forest falls the clustered snow.
Thomson.
Clustered column (Architecture) ,
a column which is composed, or appears to be composed, of several columns collected together.
Clusteringly Clus"ter·ing·ly adverb In clusters.
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