CLACK, verb intransitive

1. To make a sudden sharp noise, as by striking or cracking; to clink; to click.

2. To utter words rapidly and continually, or with sharp, abrupt sounds; to let the tongue run.

CLACK, noun

1. A sharp, abrupt sound continually repeated, such as is made by striking an object, or by bursting or cracking; continually talk; as, we do not wish to hear his clack; a common expression. Hence the word is used for the tongue, the instrument of clacking.

2. The instrument that strikes the hopper of a grist-mill, to move or shake it, for discharging the corn. And according to Johnson, a bell that rings when more corn is required to be put in.

To clack wool, is to cut off the sheeps mark, which makes it weigh less, and yield less duty.

CLACKER, noun One that clacks; that which clacks.

CLACKING, participle present tense Making a sharp, abrupt sound, continually repeated; talking continually; tattling; rattling with the tongue.

CLACKING, noun A prating.

CLAD, participle passive [See Clothe.] Clothed; invested; covered as with a garment.

Jeroboam had clad himself with a new garment. 1 Kings 11:29.

The fields are clad in cheerful green.

CLAGULATING, participle present tense Curdling; congealing.

CLAIM, verb transitive

1. To call for; to ask or seek to obtain, by virtue of authority, right or supposed right; to challenge as a right; to demand as due; as, to claim a debt; to claim obedience, or respect.

2. To assert, or maintain as a right; as, he claims to be the best poet of the age.

3. To have a right or title to; as, the heir claims the estate by descent; he claims a promise.

4. To proclaim.

5. To call or name.

CLAIM, noun

1. A demand of a right or supposed right; a calling on another for something due, or supposed to be due; as a claim of wages for services. A claim implies a right or supposed right in the claimant to something which is in anothers possession or power. A claim may be made in words, by suit, and by other means. The word is usually preceded by make or lay; to make claim; to lay claim

2. A right to claim or demand; a title to any debt, privilege or other thing in possession of another; as, a prince has a claim to the throne.

Homers claims to the first rank among Epic poets have rarely been disputed.

3. The thing claimed, or demanded.

4. A loud call.

CLAIMABLE, adjective That may be demanded as due.

CLAIMANT, noun

1. A person who claims; one who demands any thing as his right.

2. A person who has a right to claim, or demand.

CLAIMED, participle passive Demanded as due; challenged as a right; asserted; maintained.

CLAIMER, noun A claimant; one who demands as due.

CLAIMING, participle present tense Demanding as due; challenging as a right; asserting; maintaining; having a right to demand.

CLAM, noun [See the Verb.] The popular name of certain bivalvular shell-fish, of many species.

CLAMANT, [See Claim.] Crying, beseeching.

CLAMBER, verb intransitive [from climb, or D. Klampen, to grapple.] To climb with difficulty, or with hands and feet.

CLAMBERING, participle present tense Climbing with effort and labor.

CLAMMINESS, noun [See Clammy.] The state of being viscous; viscosity; stickiness; tenacity of a soft substance.

CLAMMY, adjective [See Clam.] Thick, viscous, adhesive; soft and sticky; glutinous; tenacious; as, bodies clammy and cleaving.

Cold sweat, in clammy drops, his limbs oer-spread.

CLAMOR, noun

1. A great outcry; noise; exclamation; vociferation, made by a loud human voice continued or repeated, or by a multitude of voices. It often expresses complaint and urgent demand.

2. Figuratively, loud and continued noise, as of a river or other inanimate things.

CLAMOR, verb transitive To stun with noise.

To clamor bells, is to multiply the strokes.

CLAMOR, verb intransitive To utter loud sounds, or outcries; to talk loud; to utter loud voices repeatedly; to vociferate, as an individual; to utter loud voices, as a multitude; to complain; to make importunate demands.

Those who most loudly clamor for liberty do not most liberally grant it.

Glamor your tongues in Shakespeare, if intended to mean, stop from noise, is not English. Perhaps the word was clam, or intended for a derivative.

CLAMORER, noun One who clamors.

CLAMORING, participle present tense Uttering and repeating loud words; making a great and continued noise; particularly in complaint or importunate demands.

CLAMOROUS, adjective Speaking and repeating loud words; noisy; vociferous; loud; turbulent.

CLAMOROUSLY, adverb With loud noise, or words.

CLAMOROUSNESS, noun The state or quality of being loud or noisy.

CLAMP, noun

1. In general, something that fastens or binds; a piece of timber or of iron, used to fasten work together; or a particular manner of uniting work by letting boards into each other.

2. In ship-building, a thick plank on the inner part of a ships side, used to sustain the ends of the beams.

3. A smooth crooked plate of iron forelocked on the trunnions of a cannon to keep it fast to the carriage. Clamps are also used to strengthen masts, and to fasten the masts and bowsprits of small vessels and of boats.

4. A pile of bricks laid up for burning, in which the end of one brick is laid over another, and a space is left between the bricks for the fire to ascend.

CLAMP-irons, irons used at the ends of fires to keep the fuel from falling.

CLAMP-nails, nails used to fasten on clamps in ships.

CLAMP, verb transitive

1. To fasten with clamps.

2. In joinery, to fit a piece of board with the grain, to the end of another piece of board across the grain; as, to clamp a table to prevent its warping.

CLAMPED, participle passive United or strengthened with a clamp.

CLAMPING, participle present tense Fastening or strengthening with a clamp.

CLAN, noun

1. A race; a family; a tribe. Hence, an association of persons under a chieftain.

2. In contempt, a sect, society, or body of persons closely united by some common interest or pursuit.

Note. In Russ. Kolieno signifies a knee, and a family, race or tribe. Irish glun, the knee, and a generation.

CLANCULAR, adjective Clandestine; secret; private; concealed.

CLANCULARLY, adverb Privately; secretly.

CLANDESTINE, adjective Secret; private; hidden; withdrawn from public view. It often bears an ill sense, as implying craft or deception, or evil design.

CLANDESTINELY, adverb Secretly; privately; in secret.

CLANDESTINENESS, noun Secrecy; a state of concealment.

CLANG, verb transitive To make a sharp, shrill sound, as by striking metallic substances; or to strike with a sharp sound.

They clanged their sounding arms.

CLANG, noun A sharp, shrill sound, made by striking together metallic substances, or sonorous bodies, as the clang of arms; or any like sound, as the clang of trumpets. This word implies a degree of harshness in the sound, or more harshness than clink.

CLANGOR, noun A sharp, shrill, harsh sound. [See Clang.]

CLANGOROUS, adjective Sharp, or harsh in sound.

CLANGOUS, adjective Making a clang, or a shrill, or harsh sound.

CLANISH, adjective Closely united, like a clan; disposed to adhere closely, as the members of a clan.

CLANISHNESS, noun Close adherence or disposition to unite, as a clan.

CLANK, n [See Clang.] The loud, shrill, sharp sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies.

CLANK, verb transitive To make a sharp, shrill sound; to strike with a sharp sound; as, the prisoners clank their chains.

CLANSHIP, noun A state of union, as in a family, or clan; an association under a chieftain.

CLAP, verb transitive

1. To strike with a quick motion, so as to make a noise by the collision; to strike with something broad, or having a flat surface; as, to clap the hands; to clap the wings.

2. To thrust or drive together; to shut hastily; followed by to; as, to clap to the door or gate.

3. To thrust or drive together; to put one thing to another by a hasty or sudden motion; followed by to, on or in; as, to clap the hand to the mouth; to clap spurs to a horse; to clap on a saddle.

4. To thrust; to put, place or send; followed by in, into, under, over, etc.; as, to clap one under the hatches; to clap one into Bedlam; to clap a board over a pit.

5. To applaud; to manifest approbation or praise by striking the hands together; as, to clap a performance on the stage.

6. To infect with venereal poison.

To clap up, to make or complete hastily; as, to clap up a peace.

To imprison hastily, or with little delay.

CLAP, verb intransitive

1. To move or drive together suddenly with noise.

The doors around me clapt.

2. To enter on with alacrity and briskness; to drive or thrust on; as we say to reapers or mowers, clap in, or clap to, that is, enter on the work, begin without delay, begin briskly.

3. To strike the hands together in applause.

Bid them clap

CLAP, noun

1. A driving together; a thrust and collision of bodies with noise, usually bodies with broad surfaces.

Give the door a clap

2. A sudden act or motion; a thrust.

Pay all debts at one clap

3. A burst of sound; a sudden explosion; as a clap of thunder.

4. An act of applause; a striking of hands to express approbation.

5. A venereal infection.

6. With falconers, the nether part of the beak of a hawk.

CLAPPED, participle passive Thrust or put on or together; applauded by striking the hands together; infected with the venereal disease.

CLAPPER, noun

1. A person who claps, or applauds by clapping.

2. That which strikes, as the tongue of a bell, or the piece of wood that strikes a mill-hopper.

CLAPPING, participle present tense Driving or putting on, in, over, or under, by a sudden motion; striking the hands together.

CLARE, noun A nun of the order of St. clare

CLARENCEUX,

CLARENCIEUX, noun In Great Britain, the second king at arms, so called from the duke of Clarence, and appointed by Edward IV. His office is to marshal and dispose the funerals of all baronets, knights and esquires, on the south of the river Trent.

CLARENCIEUX, n. In Great Britain, the second king at arms, so called from the duke of Clarence, and appointed by Edward IV. His office is to marshal and dispose the funerals of all baronets, knights and esquires, on the south of the river Trent.

CLARET, noun A species of French wine, of a clear pale red color.

CLARICHORD, noun A musical instrument in form of a spinet, called also manichord. It has forty nine or fifty stops or keys, and seventy strings; some of the latter being in unison. There are several little mortises for passing the jacks, armed with brass hooks, which stop and raise the chords, instead of the feather used in virginals and spinets. The chords are covered with pieces of cloth, which deaden the sound and render it sweeter. Hence it is particularly used by nuns.

CLARIFICATION, noun [See Clarify.] The act of clearing; particularly the clearing or fining of liquid substances from all feculent matter.

CLARIFIED, participle passive Purified; made clear or fine; defecated.

CLARIFIER, noun

1. That which clarifies or purifies; as, whites of eggs, blood and isinglass are clarifiers of liquors.

2. A vessel in which liquor is clarified.

CLARIFY, verb transitive

1. To make clear; to purify from feculent matter; to defecate; to fine; applied particularly to liquors; as, to clarify wine, or syrup.

2. To make clear; to brighten or illuminate; applied to the mind or reason.

CLARIFY, verb intransitive

1. To clear up; to grow clear or bright.

His understanding clarifies, in discoursing with another.

2. To grow or become clear or fine; to become pure, as liquors. Cider clarifies by fermentation.

CLARIFYING, participle present tense Making clear, pure or bright; defecating; growing clear.

CLARINET, noun A wind instrument of music.

CLARION, noun A kind of trumpet, whose tube is narrower and its tone more acute and shrill than that of the common trumpet.

CLARITUDE, noun Clearness, brightness; splendor.

CLARY, verb intransitive To make a loud or shrill noise.

CLARY, noun A plant of the genus Salvia, or sage.

CLASH, verb intransitive

1. To strike against; to drive against with force.

Note. The sense of this word is simply to strike against or meet with force; but when two sounding bodies strike together, the effect is a sound. Hence the word often implies, to strike with a noise, as clashing arms.

2. To meet in opposition; to be contrary; to act in a contrary direction; to interfere, as opposing persons, minds, views, interests, etc.; as, the opinions of men clash; clashing interests.

Independent jurisdictions--could not fail to clash

CLASH, verb transitive To strike one thing against another, with sound.

CLASH, noun

1. A meeting of bodies with violence; a striking together with noise; collision, or noisy collision of bodies; as the clash of arms.

2. Opposition; contradiction; as between differing or contending interests, views, purposes, etc.

CLASHING, participle present tense Striking against with noise; meeting in opposition; opposing; interfering.

CLASHING, noun A striking against; collision of bodies; opposition.

CLASP, noun

1. A hook for fastening; a catch; a small hook to hold together the covers of a book, or the different parts of a garment, of a belt, etc.

2. A close embrace; a throwing of the arms round.

CLASP, verb transitive

1. To shut or fasten together with a clasp

2. To catch and hold by twining; to surround and cling to; as the clasping ivy.

3. To inclose and hold in the hand; or simply to inclose or encompass with the fingers.

4. To embrace closely; to throw the arms round; to catch with the arms.

5. To inclose, and press.

CLASPED, participle passive Fastened with a clasp; shut; embraced; inclosed; encompassed; caught.

CLASPER, noun He or that which clasps; usually the tendril of a vine or other plant, which twines round something for support.

CLASPERED, adjective Furnished with tendrils.

CLASPING, participle present tense

1. Twining round; catching and holding; embracing; inclosing; shutting or fastening with a clasp.

2. In botany, surrounding the stem at the base, as a leaf.

CLASS, noun

1. An order or rank of persons; a number of persons in society, supposed to have some resemblance or equality, in rank, education, property, talents, and the like; as in the phrase, all classes of men in society.

The readers of poetry may be distinguished into three classes, according to their capacity of judging.

2. A number of students in a college or school, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies. In colleges, the students entering or becoming members the same year, and pursuing the same studies. In academies and schools, the pupils who learn the same lesson, and recite together. In some cases, students of different standings, pursuing the same studies and reciting together, or attending the same professor, or the same course of lectures.

3. Scientific division or arrangement; a set of beings or things, having something in common, or ranged under a common denomination. Hence in zoology, animals are divided into classes; as quadrupeds, fowls, fishes, etc. So in botany, plants are arranged in classes. Classes are natural or artificial; natural, when founded on natural relations, or resemblances; artificial, when formed arbitrarily, for want of a complete knowledge of natural relations.

CLASS, verb transitive

1. To arrange in a class or classes; to arrange in sets, or ranks, according to some method founded on natural distinctions; to place together, or in one division, men or things which have or are supposed to have something in common.

2. To place in ranks or divisions students that are pursuing the same studies; to form into a class or classes.

CLASSIC,

CLASSICAL, adjective

1. Relating to ancient Greek and Roman authors of the first rank or estimation, which, in modern times, have been and still are studied as the best models of fine writing. Thus, Aristotle, Plato, Demosthenes, Thucydides, etc., among the Greeks, and Cicero, Virgil, Livy, Sallust, Cesar, and Tacitus, among the Latins, are classical authors. Hence,

2. Pertaining to writers of the first rank among the moderns; being of the first order; constituting the best model or authority as an author; as, Addison and Johnson are English classical writers. Hence classical denotes pure, chaste, correct, refined; as a classical taste; a classical style.

At Liverpool, Roscoe is like Pompeys column at Alexandria, towering alone in classic dignity.

3. Denoting an order of presbyterian assemblies.

CLASSIC, noun

1. An author of the first rank; a writer whose style is pure, correct, and refined; primarily, a Greek or Roman author of this character; but the word is applied to writers of a like character in any nation.

2. A book written by an author of the first class.

CLASSICALLY, adverb

1. In the manner of classes; according to a regular order of classes, or sets.

It would be impossible to bear all its specific details in the memory, if they were not classically arranged.

2. In a classical manner; according to the manner of classical authors.

CLASSIFIC, adjective Constituting a class or classes; noting classification, or the order of distribution into sets.

CLASSIFICATION, noun [See Classify.] The act of forming into a class or classes; distribution into sets, sorts or ranks.

CLASSIFIED, participle passive Arranged in classes; formed into a class or classes.

CLASSIFY, verb transitive To make a class or classes; to distribute into classes; to arrange in sets according to some common properties or characters.

The diseases and casualties are not scientifically classified.

CLASSIFYING, participle present tense Forming a class or classes; arranging in sorts or ranks.

CLASSIS, noun

1. Class; order; sort.

2. A convention or assembly.

CLATTER, verb intransitive

1. To make rattling sounds; to make repeated sharp sounds, as by striking sonorous bodies; as, to clatter on a shield.

2. To utter continual or repeated sharp sounds, or rattling sounds, by being struck together; as clattering arms.

3. To talk fast and idly; to run on; to rattle with the tongue.

CLATTER, verb transitive

1. To strike and make a rattling noise.

You clatter still your brazen kettle.

2. To dispute, jar or clamor.

CLATTER, noun

1. A rapid succession of abrupt, sharp sounds, made by the collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; rattling sounds.

2. Tumultuous and confused noise; a repetition of abrupt, sharp sounds.

CLATTERER, noun One who clatters; a babbler.

CLATTERING, participle present tense Making or uttering sharp, abrupt sounds, as by a collision of sonorous bodies; talking fast with noise; rattling.

CLATTERING, noun A rattling noise.

CLAUDENT, adjective Shutting; confining; drawing together; as a claudent muscle.

CLAUDICANT, adjective Halting; limping.

CLAUDICATE, verb intransitive To halt or limp.

CLAUDICATION, noun A halting or limping.

CLAUSE, noun s as z. Literally, a close, or inclosure. Hence, that which is included, or contained, within certain limits.

1. In language or grammar, a member of a period or sentence; a subdivision of a sentence, in which the words are inseparably connected with each other in sense, and cannot, with propriety, be separated by a point; as, there is reason to think that he afterwards rose to favor, and obtained several honors civil and military. In this sentence are two clauses.

2. An article in a contract or other writing; a distinct part of a contract, will, agreement, charter, commission, or other writing; a distinct stipulation, condition, proviso, grant, covenant, etc.

CLAUSTRAL, adjective [See Clause.] Relating to a cloister, or religious house; as a claustral prior.

CLAUSURE, noun s as z. [See Clause.]

1. The act of shutting up or confining; confinement.

2. In anatomy, an imperforated canal.

CLAVATED, adjective

1. Club-shaped; having the form of a club; growing gradually thicker towards the top, as certain parts of a plant.

2. Set with knobs.

CLAVE, preterit tense Of cleave.

CLAVELLATED, adjective clavellated ashes, potash and pearlash.

CLAVIARY, noun A scale of lines and spaces in music.

CLAVICHORD, noun A musical instrument of an oblong figure, of the nature of a spinet. The strings are muffled with small bits of fine woolen cloth, to soften the sounds; used in nunneries. [See Clarichord.]

CLAVICLE, noun The collar bone. There are two clavicles, or channel bones, joined at one end to the scapula or shoulder bone, and at the other, to the sternum or breast bone.

CLAVIGER, noun One who keeps the keys of any place.

CLAW, noun

1. The sharp hooked nail of a beast, bird or other animal.

Every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud--ye shall eat. Deuteronomy 14:6.

His nails were grown like birds claws. Daniel 4:33.

2. The whole foot of an animal armed with hooked nails.

3. The hand, in contempt.

CLAW, verb transitive

1. To pull, tear or scratch with the nails.

2. To scratch or tear in general; to tickle.

3. To flatter.

To claw off or away,

1. To scold or rail at.

2. In seamanship, to turn to windward and beat, to prevent falling on a lee shore.

3. In vulgar language, to scratch away; to get off or escape.

CLAWED, participle passive

1. Scratched, pulled or torn with claws.

2. adjective Furnished with claws.

CLAWING, participle present tense Pulling, tearing or scratching with claws or nails.

CLAWLESS, adjective Destitute of claws.

CLAY, noun

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 4:19.

CLAY, verb transitive

1. To cover or manure with clay

2. To purify and whiten with clay as sugar.

CLAYED, participle passive

1. Covered or manured with clay.

2. Purified and whitened with clay; as clayed sugar.

CLAYES, noun plural In fortification, wattles or hurdles made with stakes interwoven with osiers, to cover lodgments.

CLAYEY, adjective Consisting of clay; abounding with clay; partaking of clay; like clay.

CLAYISH, adjective Partaking of the nature of clay, or containing particles of it.

CLEAN, adjective In a general sense, free from extraneous matter, or whatever is injurious or offensive; hence its signification depends on the nature and qualities of the substances to which it is applied.

1. Free from dirt, or other foul matter; as clean water; a clean cup; a clean floor.

2. Free from weeds or stones; as clean land; a clean garden or field.

3. Free from knots or branches; as clean timber. In America, clear is generally used.

4. Free from moral impurity; innocent.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job 14:4. Acts 18:6.

5. Free from ceremonial defilement. Leviticus 10:10; Numbers 19:9.

6. Free from guilt; sanctified; holy. John 13:10. Psalms 51:7.

7. That might be eaten by the Hebrews. Genesis 7:2; Genesis 8:20.

8. That might be used. Luke 11:39.

9. Free from a foul disease; cured of leprosy. 2 Kings 5:10. Math. 8.

10. Dextrous; adroit; not bungling; free from awkwardness; as a clean feat; a clean boxer.

11. Free from infection; as a clean ship. A clean bill of health is a certificate that a ship is clean or free from infection.

CLEAN, adverb

1. Quite; perfectly; wholly; entirely; fully; indicating separation or complete removal of every part. The people passed clean over Jordan. Joshua 3:17. Is his mercy clean gone forever? Psalms 77:8. This use of clean is not now elegant, and not used except in vulgar language.

2. Without miscarriage; dextrously.

Pope came off clean with Homer.

CLEAN, verb transitive To remove all foreign matter from; to separate from any thing whatever is extraneous to it, or whatever is foul, noxious, or offensive, as dirt or filth from the hands, body or clothes, foul matter from a vessel, weeds, shrubs and stones from a meadow; to purify. Thus, a house is cleaned by sweeping and washing; a field is cleaned by plowing and hoeing.

CLEANLINESS, noun

1. Freedom from dirt, filth, or any foul, extraneous matter.

2. Neatness of person or dress; purity.

CLEANLY, adjective clenly. [from clean.]

1. Free rom dirt, filth, or any foul matter; neat; carefully avoiding filth.

2. Pure; free from mixture; innocent; as cleanly joys.

3. Cleansing; making clean; as cleanly powder.

4. Nice; artful; dextrous; adroit; as a cleanly play; a cleanly evasion.

CLEANLY, adverb In a clean manner; neatly; without filth.

CLEANNESS, noun

1. Freedom from dirt, filth, and foreign matter; neatness.

2. Freedom from infection or a foul disease.

3. Exactness; purity; justness; correctness; used of language or style; as, cleanness of expression.

4. Purity; innocence.

In scripture, cleanness of hands denotes innocence. cleanness of teeth denotes want of provisions. Amos 4:6.

CLEANSABLE, adjective That may be lleansed.

CLEANSE, verb transitive

1. To purify; to make clean; to remove filth, or foul matter of any kind, or by any process whateve, as by washing, rubbing, scouring, scraping, purging, ventilation, etc.; as, to cleanse the hands or face to cleanse a garment; to cleanse the bowels; to cleanse a ship; to cleanse an infected house.

2. To free from a foul or infectious disease; to heal. Leviticus 14:4, 8; Mark 1:42.

3. To free from ceremonial pollution, and consecrate to a holy use. Numbers 8:15; Exek. 43:20.

4. To purify from guilt. 1 John 1:7.

5. To remove; as, to cleanse a crime.

CLEANSED, participle passive Purified; made clean; purged; healed.

CLEANSER, noun He or that which cleanses; in medicine, a detergent.

CLEANSING, participle passive Purifying; making clean; purging; removing foul or noxious matter from; freeing from guilt.

CLEANSING, noun The act of purifying, or purging. Mark 1:44; Luke 5:14.

CLEAR, adjective

1. Open; free from obstruction; as a clear plat of ground; the way is clear

2. Free from clouds, or fog; serene; as a clear day.

3. Free from foreign matter; unmixed; pure; as clear water; clear sand; clear air; clear glass.

4. Free from any thing that creates doubt or uncertainty; apparent; evident; manifest; not obscure; conspicuous; that is, open to the mind; as, the reason is clear

5. Unclouded; luminous; not obscured; as a clear sun; a clear shining after a rain. 2 Samuel 23:4.

6. Unobstructed; unobscured; as a clear view.

7. Perspicacious; sharp; as a clear sight.

8. Not clouded with care, or ruffled by passion; cheerful; serene; as a clear aspect.

9. Evident; undeniable; indisputable; as the victory was clear

10. Quick to understand; prompt; acute.

Mother of science, now I feel thy power within me clear

11. Free from guilt or blame; innocent; unspotted; irreproachable. 2 Corinthians 7:11.

In action faithful, and in honor clear

12. Free from bias; unprepossessed; not preoccupied; impartial; as a clear judgment.

13. Free from debt, or obligation; not liable to prosecution; as, to be clear of debt or responsibility.

14. Free from deductions, or charges; as clear gain or profit.

15. Not entangled; unembarrassed; free; as, the cable is clear A ship is clear when she is so remote from shore or other object, as to be out of danger of striking, or to have sea room sufficient.

16. Open; distinct; not jarring, or harsh; as a clear sound; a clear voice.

17. Liberated; freed; acquitted of charges; as, a man has been tried and got clear

18. Free from spots or any thing that disfigures; as a clear skin.

CLEAR is followed by from or by of.

Thou shalt be clear from this my oath. Genesis 24:8.

The air is clear of damp exhalations.

CLEAR, adverb

1. Plainly; not obscurely; manifestly.

2. Clean; quite; entirely; wholly; indicating entire separation; as, to cut a piece clear off; to go clear away; but in this sense its use is not elegant.

CLEAR or in the clear among joiners and carpenters, denotes the space within walls, or length and breadth clear or exclusive of the thickness of the wall.

CLEAR, verb transitive

1. To make clear; to fine; to remove any thing foreign; to separate from any foul matter; to purify; to clarify; as, to clear liquors.

2. To free from obstructions; as, to clear the road.

3. To free from any thing noxious or injurious; as, to clear the ocean of pirates; to clear the land of enemies.

4. To remove any incumbrance, or embarrassment; often followed by off or away; as, to clear off debts; to clear away rubbish.

5. To free; to liberate, or disengage; to exonerate; as, to clear a man from debt, obligation, or duty.

6. To cleanse; as, to clear the hands from filth; to clear the bowels.

7. To remove any thing that obscures, as clouds or fog; to make bright; as, to clear the sky; sometimes followed by up.

8. To free from obscurity, perplexity or ambiguity; as, to clear a question or theory; to clear up a case or point.

9. To urge from the imputation of guilt; to justify or vindicate.

How shall we clear ourselves? Genesis 44:16.

That will by no means clear the guilty. Exodus 34:7.

10. In a legal sense, to acquit on trial, by verdict; as, the prisoner has been tried and cleared.

11. To make gain or profit, beyond all expenses and charges; as, to clear ten percent by a sale of goods, or by a voyage.

12. To remove wood from land. To cut down trees, remove or burn them, and prepare land for tillage or pasture; as, to clear land for wheat.

CLEAR, verb intransitive

1. To become free from clouds or fog; to become fair; often followed by up, off, or away; as, the sky clears; the weather clears up; it clears away; it clears off.

2. To be disengaged from incumbrances, distress or entanglements; to become free or disengaged.

He that clears at once will relapse.

CLEARAGE, noun The removing of any thing.

CLEARANCE, noun A certificate that a ship or vessel has been cleared at the custom house; permission to sail.

CLEARED, participle passive Purified; freed from foreign matter, or from incumbrance; made manifest; made luminous; cleansed; liberated; acquitted.

CLEARER, noun That which clears, purifies, or enlightens; that which brightens.

CLEARING, participle present tense Purifying; removing foul matter, incumbrances, or obstructions; making evident, or luminous; cleansing; liberating; disengaging; acquitting; making gain beyond all costs and charges.

CLEARING, noun

1. A defense; justification; vindication. 2 Corinthians 7:11.

2. A place or tract of land cleared of wood for cultivation; a common use of the word in America.

3. The act of making clear.

CLEARLY, adverb

1. Plainly; evidently; fully; as, the fact is clearly proved.

2. Without obstruction; luminously; as, to shine clearly

3. With clear discernment; as, to understand clearly

4. Without entanglement, or confusion.

5. Plainly; honestly; candidly.

Deal clearly and impartially with yourselves.

6. Without reserve, evasion or subterfuge.

CLEARNESS, noun

1. Freedom from foul or extraneous matter; purity; as the clearness of water, or other liquor.

2. Freedom from obstruction or incumbrance; as the clearness of the ground.

3. Freedom from fogs or clouds; openness; as the clearness of the sky. It generally expresses less than brightness or splendor. Exodus 24:10.

4. Distinctness; perspicuity; luminousness; as the clearness of reason, of views, of arguments, of explanations.

5. Plainness, or plain dealing; sincerity; honesty; fairness; candor.

6. Freedom from imputation of ill.

7. Freedom from spots, or any thing that disfigures; as the clearness of the skin.

CLEAT, noun A piece of wood used in a ship to fasten ropes upon. It is formed with one arm or two, or with a hollow to receive a rope, and is made fast to some part of a vessel. Cleats are belaying-cleats, deck-cleats or thumb-cleats.

CLEAVAGE, noun

1. The act of cleaving or splitting.

2. In mineralogy, the manner of cleaving, or of mechanical division. It is used in relation to the fracture of minerals which have natural joints and possess a regular structure.

CLEAVE, verb intransitive

1. To stick; to adhere; to hold to.

My bones cleave to my skin. Psalms 102:5.

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Psalms 137:6.

CLEAVE to that which is good. Romans 12:9.

2. To unite aptly; to fit; to sit well on.

3. To unite or be united closely in interest or affection; to adhere with strong attachment.

A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife. Genesis 2:24. Math. 19.

CLEAVE to Jehovah your God. Joshua 23:8.

CLEAVE, verb transitive

1. To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to open or serve the cohering parts of a body, by cutting or by the application of force; as, to cleave wood; to cleave a rock; to cleave the flood. Psa 74.

2. To part or open naturally.

Every beast that cleaveth the cleft into two claws. Deuteronomy 14:1.

CLEAVE, verb intransitive To part; to open; to crack; to separate, as parts of cohering bodies; as, the ground cleaves by frost.

The mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof. Zechariah 14:4.

CLEAVED, participle passive Split; rived; divided.

CLEAVELANDITE, noun A mineral, generally of a white or grayish white color, sometimes blue or bluish or reddish; called also siliceous felspar, or albite.

CLEAVER, noun One who cleaves; that which cleaves; a butchers instrument for cutting animal bodies into joints or pieces.

CLEAVING, participle present tense Sticking; adhering; uniting to. Also, splitting; dividing; riving.

CLECHE, noun In heraldry, a kind of cross, charged with another cross of the same figure, but of the color of the field.

CLEDGE, noun Among miners, the upper stratum of fullers earth.

CLEF, noun A character in music placed at the beginning of a stave, to determine the degree of elevation occupied by that stave in the general claviary or system, and to point out the names of all the notes which it contains in the line of that clef

CLEFT, participle passive of cleave. Divided; split; parted asunder.

CLEFT, noun

1. A space or opening made by splitting; a crack; a crevice; as the cleft of a rock. Isaiah 2:21.

2. A disease in horses; a crack on the bought of the pastern.

3. A piece made by splitting; as a cleft of wood.

CLEG, noun The hose fly; Dan.

CLEM, verb transitive To starve.

CLEMENCY, noun

1. Mildness; softness; as the clemency of the air.

2. Mildness of temper; gentleness or lenity of disposition; disposition to treat with favor and kindness.

I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words. Acts 24:4.

3. Mercy; disposition to treat with lenity, to forgive or to spare, as offenders; tenderness in punishing; opposed to severity, harshness, or rigor.

CLEMENT, adjective Mild in temper and disposition; gentle; lenient; merciful; kind; tender; compassionate.

CLEMENTINE, adjective Pertaining to St. Clement, or to his compilations; or to the constitutions of Clement the fifth.

CLEMENTLY, adverb With mildness of temper; mercifully.

CLENCH. [See Clinch.]

CLEPE, verb transitive or I. To call, or name.

CLEPSAMMIA, noun An instrument for measuring time by sand, like an hour glass.

CLEPSYDRA, noun

1. A time piece used by the Greeks and Romans, which measured time by the discharge of a certain quantity of water. Also, a fountain in Greece.

2. A chimical vessel.

CLERGICAL, adjective Pertaining to the clergy. [See Clerical.]

CLERGY, noun

1. The body of men set apart, and consecrated, by due ordination, to the service of God, in the christian church; the body of ecclesiastics, in distinction from the laity.

2. The privilege or benefit of clergy

If convicted of a clergyable felony, he is entitled equally to his clergy after as before conviction.

Benefit of clergy in English law, originally the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge; or a privilege by which a clerk or person in orders claimed to be delivered to his ordinary to purge himself of felony. But this privilege has been abridged and modified by various statutes. In the United States, no benefit of clergy exists.

CLERGYABLE, adjective Entitled to or admitting the benefit of clergy; as a clergyable felony.

CLERGYMAN, noun A man in holy orders; a man licensed to preach the gospel, according to the forms and rules of any particular denomination of christians.

CLERIC, noun A clerk or clergyman.

CLERICAL, adjective Relating or pertaining to the clergy as clerical tonsure; clerical robes; clerical duties.

CLERK, noun

1. A clergyman, or ecclesiastic; a man in holy orders.

2. A man that can read.

Everyone that could read--being accounted a clerk

3. A man of letters; a scholar.

The foregoing significations are found in the English laws, and histories of the church; as in the rude ages of the church, learning was chiefly confined to the clergy. In modern usage.

4. A writer; one who is employed in the use of the pen, in an office public or private, for keeping records, and accounts; as the clerk of a court. In some cases clerk is synonymous with secretary; but not always. A clerk is always an officer subordinate to a higher officer, board, corporation or person; whereas, a secretary may be either a subordinate officer, or the head of an office or department.

5. A layman who is the reader of responses in church service.

CLERKLIKE, adjective Like a clerk; learned.

CLERKLY, adjective Scholarlike.

CLERKLY, adverb In a learned manner.

CLERKSHIP, noun

1. A state of being in holy orders.

2. Scholarship.

3. The office or business of a clerk or writer.

CLEROMANCY, noun A divination by throwing dice or little bones, and observing the points or marks turned up.

CLEVE,

CLEVER, adjective

1. Fit; suitable; convenient; proper; commodious.

2. Dextrous; adroit; ready; that performs with skill or address.

3. In New England, good-natured, possessing an agreeable mind or disposition. In Great Britain, this word is applied to the body or its movements, in its literal sense; in America, it is applied chiefly to the mind, temper, disposition. In Great Britain, a clever man is a dextrous man, one who performs and act with skill or address. In New-England, a clever man is a man of a pleasing obliging disposition, and amiable manners, but often implying a moderate share of talents. Fitness, suitableness, gives both senses analogically; the former applied to the body; the latter, to the mind, or its qualities. It is a colloquial word, but sometimes found in respectable writings.

In some of the United States, it is said this word is applied to the intellect, denoting ingenious, knowing, discerning.

CLEVER, a.

CLEVERLY, adverb Fitly; dextrously; handsomely.

CLEVERNESS, noun

1. Dexterity; adroitness; skill.

2. Mildness of agreeableness of disposition; obligingness; good nature.

CLEVIS, noun An iron bent to the form of an ox bow, with the two ends perforated to receive a pin, used on the end of a cartneap to hold the chain of the forward horse or oxen; or a draft iron on a plow.

CLEVY,

CLEW, noun

1. A ball of thread.

2. The thread that forms a ball; the thread that is used to guide a person in a labyrinth. Hence, any thing that guides or directs one in an intricate case.

3. The lower corner of a square sail, and the aftmost corner of a stay sail.

CLEW, verb transitive

1. In seamanship, to truss up to the yard, by means of clew-garnets or clew-lines, in order to furling.

2. To direct.

CLEW, n.

CLEW, v.t.

CLICK, verb intransitive Literally, to strike; hence,

To make a small sharp noise, or rather a succession of small sharp sounds, as by a gentle striking.

The solemn death-watch clicked.

CLICK, noun In seamens language, a small piece of iron falling into a notched wheel attached to the winches in cutters, etc.

CLICK, noun The latch of a door.

CLICKER, noun The servant of a salesman, who stands at the door to invite customers; a law ward and not used in the United States.

CLICKET, noun The knocker of a door.

CLICKING, participle present tense Making small sharp noises.

CLIENT, noun

1. Among the Romans, a citizen who put himself under the protection of a man of distinction and influence, who, in respect to that relation, was called his patron. Hence in modern usage,

2. One who applies to a lawyer or counselor for advice and direction in a question of law, or commits his cause to his management in prosecuting a claim, or defending against a suit, in a court of justice.

3. A dependent.

CLIENTAL, adjective Dependent.

CLIENTED, adjective Supplied with clients.

CLIENTSHIP, noun The condition of a client; a state of being under the protection of a patron.

CLIF, noun

1. A steep bank; as the cliffs of Dover. So in Saxon, the cliffs of the Red Sea.

2. A high and steep rock; any precipice.

CLIF,

CLIFF, in music. [See Clef.]

CLIFF, in music. [See Clef.]

CLIFFY, adjective Having cliffs; broken; craggy.

CLIFTED, adjective Broken.

CLIMACTER, noun

1. A critical year in human life; but climacteric is more generally used.

2. A certain space of time.

CLIMACTERIC, adjective Literally, noting a scale, progression, or gradation; appropriately, denoting a critical period of human life, or a certain number of years, at the end of which a great change is supposed to take place in the human constitution. [See the Noun.]

CLIMACTERIC, noun A critical period in human life, or a period in which some great change is supposed to take place in the human constitution. The critical periods are supposed by some persons to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd numbers 3, 5, 7 and 9; to which others add the 81st year. The 63d year is called the grand climacteric It has been supposed that these periods are attended with some remarkable change in respect o health, life or fortune.

CLIMATARCHIC, adjective Presiding over climates.

CLIMATE, noun

1. In geography, a part of the surface of the earth, bounded by two circles parallel to the equator, and of such a breadth that the longest day in the parallel nearest the pole is half an hour longer than that nearest to the equator. The beginning of a climate is a parallel circle in which the longest day is half and hour shorter than that at the end. The climates begin at the equator, where the day is 12 hours long; and at the end of the first climate the longest day is 12 hours long, and this increase of half an hour constitutes a climate to the polar circles; from which climates are measured by the increase of a month.

2. In a popular sense, a tract of land, region or country, differing from another in the temperature of the air; or any region or country with respect to the temperature of the air, the seasons, and their peculiar qualities, without any regard to the length of the days, or to geographical position. Thus we say, a warm or cold climate; a moist or dry climate; a happy climate; a genial climate; a mountainous climate

CLIMATE, verb intransitive To dwell; to reside in a particular region.

CLIMATIC,

CLIMATICAL, adjective Pertaining to a climate or climates; limited by a climate.

CLIMATICAL, a. Pertaining to a climate or climates; limited by a climate.

CLIMATURE, noun A climate.

CLIMAX, noun

1. Gradation; ascent; a figure of rhetoric, in which a sentence rises as it were, step by step; or in which the expression which ends one member of the period, begins the second, and so on, till the period is finished; as in the following: When we have practiced good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, they grow into a habit.

2. A sentence, or series of sentences, in which the successive members or sentences rise in force, importance or dignity, to the close of the sentence or series.

CLIMB, verb intransitive

1. To creep up by little and little, or step by step; to mount or ascend, by means of the hands and feet; to rise on any fixed object, by seizing it with the hands and lifting the body, and by thrusting with the feet; as, to climb a tree or a precipice.

And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree. Luke 19:4.

2. To mount or ascend with labor and difficulty.

3. To rise or ascend with a slow motion.

Black vapors climb aloft.

CLIMB, verb transitive

1. To ascend by means of the hands and feet, implying labor, difficulty and slow progress; as, to climb a wall, or a steep mountain.

2. To mount or ascend, with labor or a slow motion; as, to climb the ascents of fame.

CLIMBABLE, adjective That may be climbed.

CLIMBED, participle passive

1. One who climbs, mounts or rises, by the hands and feet; one who rises by labor or effort.

2. A plant that creeps and rises on some support.

CLIMBER, noun

1. One who climbs, mounts or rises, by the hands and feet; one who rises by labor or effort.

2. A plant that creeps and rises on some support.

CLIMBER, verb intransitive To climb; to mount with effort.

CLIMBING, participle present tense Ascending by the use of the hands and feet; ascending with difficulty.

CLIMBING, noun The act of ascending.

CLIME, noun A climate; a tract or region of the earth; a poetical word, but sometimes used in prose. [See Climate.]

Whatever clime the suns bright circle warms.

CLINCH, verb transitive

1. To gripe with the hand; to make fast by bending over, folding, or embracing closely. Thus, to clinch a nail, is to bend the point and drive it closely. To clinch the hand or fist, is to contract the fingers closely into the palm of the hand. To clinch an instrument, is to close the fingers and thumb round it, and hold it fast.

2. To fix or fasten; to make firm; as, to clinch an argument.

CLINCH, noun

1. A word used in a double meaning; a pun; an ambiguity; a duplicity of meaning, with identity of expression.

Here one poor word a hundred clinches makes.

2. A witty, ingenious reply.

3. In seamens language, the part of a cable which is fastened to the ring of an anchor; a kind of knot and seizings, used to fasten a cable to the ring of an anchor, and the britching of a gun to the ring bolts in a ships side.

CLINCHED, participle passive Made fast by doubling or embracing closely.

CLINCHER, noun

1. That which clinches; a cramp or piece of iron bent down to fasten any thing.

2. One who makes a smart reply.

3. That which makes fast.

CLINCHING, participle present tense Making fast by doubling over or embracing closely; griping with the fist.

CLING, verb intransitive

1. To adhere closely; to stick to; to hold fast upon, especially by winding round or embracing; as, the tendril of a vine clings to its support.

Two babes of love close clinging to her waist.

2. To adhere closely; to stick to; as a viscous substance.

3. To adhere closely and firmly, in interest or affection; as, men of a party cling to their leader.

CLING, verb transitive To dry up, or wither.

Till famine cling thee.

In Saxon, clingan is rendered to fade or wither, marcesco, as well as to cling In this sense is used forclingan, participle passive forclungen. The radical sense then appears to be, to contract or draw together; and drying, withering, is expressed by shrinking.

CLINGING, participle present tense Adhering closely; sticking to; winding round and holding to.

CLINGY, adjective Apt to cling; adhesive.

CLINIC,

CLINICAL, adjective In a general sense, pertaining to a bed. A clinical lecture is a discourse delivered at the bed-side of the sick, or from notes taken at the bed-side, by a physician, with a view to practical instruction in the healing art. Clinical medicine is the practice of medicine on patients in bed, or in hospitals. A clinical convert is a convert on his death-bed. Anciently persons receiving baptism on their death-beds were called clinics.

CLINIC, noun One confined to the bed by sickness.

CLINICAL, a. In a general sense, pertaining to a bed. A clinical lecture is a discourse delivered at the bed-side of the sick, or from notes taken at the bed-side, by a physician, with a view to practical instruction in the healing art. Clinical medicine is the practice of medicine on patients in bed, or in hospitals. A clinical convert is a convert on his death-bed. Anciently persons receiving baptism on their death-beds were called clinics.

CLINICALLY, adverb In a clinical manner; by the bed-side.

CLINK, verb transitive To ring or jingle; to utter or make a small sharp sound, or a succession of such sounds, as by striking small metallic or other sonorous bodies together.

CLINK, noun A sharp sound, made by the collision of small sonorous bodies. Spenser, according to Johnson, uses the word for a knocker.

CLINKING, participle present tense Making a small sharp sound, or succession of sounds.

CLINKSTONE, noun A mineral which has a slaty structure, and is generally divisible into tabular masses, usually thick, sometimes thin like those of argillite. The cross fracture is commonly splintery. Its colors are dark greenish gray, yellowish, bluish, or ash gray; and it is usually translucent at the edges, sometimes opake. It occurs in extensive masses, often composed of columnar or tabular distinct concretions, more or less regular. It is usually found among secondary rocks; sometimes resting on basalt, and covered by greenstone.

CLINOMETER, noun An instrument for measuring the dip of mineral strata.

CLINQUANT, adjective Dressed in tinsel finery.

CLIP, verb transitive

1. To cut off with shears or scissors; to separate by a sudden stroke; especially to cut off the ends or sides of a thing, to make it shorter or narrower, in distinction from shaving and paring, which are performed by rubbing the instrument close to the thing shaved; as, to clip the hair; to clip wings.

But love had clipped his wings and cut him short.

2. To diminish coin by paring the edge.

3. To curtail; to cut short.

4. To confine, limit, restrain, or hold; to hug.

To clip it, is a vulgar phrase in New England for to run with speed. So cut issued; cut on, run fast. This seems to be the meaning in Dryden.

Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed,

And with her eagerness the quarry missed,

Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind.

This sense would seem to be allied to that of leap.

CLIP, noun

1. A blow or stroke with the hand; as, he hit him a clip

2. An embrace; that is, a throwing the arms round.

CLIPPED, CLIPT, participle passive Cut off; cut short; curtailed; diminished by paring.

CLIPPER, noun One who clips; especially one who cuts off the edges of coin.

CLIPPING, participle present tense Cutting off or shortening with shears or scissors; diminishing coin by paring off the edges; curtailing.

CLIPPING, noun

1. The act of cutting off, curtailing or diminishing.

2. That which is clipped off; a piece separated by clipping

CLIPPED, CLIPT participle passive Cut off; cut short; curtailed; diminished by paring.

CLIVE, in the composition of names, denote a place situated on or near a cliff, on the side of a hill, rock or precipice; as Cleveland, Clifton.

CLIVERS, noun A plant, the Galium aparine; called also goose-grass, or hairiff. It has a square, rough, jointed stem; the joints hairy at the base; with eight or ten narrow leaves at each joint.

CLOAGULATED, participle passive Concreted; curdled.

CLOAK. [See Cloke.]

CLOCHARD, noun A belfry.

CLOCK, noun

1. A machine, consisting of wheels moved by weights, so constructed that by a uniform vibration of a pendulum, it measures time, and its divisions, hours, minutes and seconds, with great exactness. It indicates the hour by the stroke of a small hammer on a bell.

The phrases, what oclock is it? It is nine oclock, seem to be contracted from what of the clock? It is nine of the clock

2. A figure or figured work in the ankle of a stocking.

CLOCK, verb transitive To call. [See Cluck.]

CLOD, noun

1. A hard lump of earth, of any kind; a mass of earth cohering.

2. A lump or mass of metal.

3. Turf; the ground.

4. That which is earthy, base and vile, as the body of man compared to his soul.

5. A dull, gross, stupid fellow; a dolt.

6. Any thing concreted.

CLOD, verb intransitive To collect into concretions, or a thick mass; to coagulate; as clodded gore.

[See Clot, which is more generally used.]

CLOD, verb transitive To pelt with clods.

CLODDY, adjective

1. Consisting of clods; abounding with clods.

2. Earthy; mean; gross.

CLODHOPPER, noun A clown; a dolt.

CLODPATE, noun A stupid fellow; a dolt; a thickskull.

CLODPATED, adjective Stupid; dull; doltish.

CLODPOLL, noun A stupid fellow; a dolt; a blockhead.

CLOG, verb transitive

1. To load or fill with something that retards or hinders motion; as, to clog the channel of a river; to clog a passage.

2. To put on any thing that encumbers, with a view to hinder or restrain leaping; to shackle; as, to clog a beast.

3. To load with any thing that encumbers; to burden; to embarrass; as, to clog commerce with impositions or restrictions.

4. To obstruct natural motion, or render it difficult; to hinder; to impede.

CLOG, verb intransitive

1. To coalesce; to unite and adhere in a cluster or mass.

Move it sometimes with a broom, that the seeds clog not together.

2. To form an accretion; to be loaded or encumbered with extraneous matter.

The teeth of the saw will begin to clog

CLOG, noun

1. Any thing put upon an animal to hinder motion, or leaping, as a piece of wood fastened to his leg.

2. An encumbrance; that which hinders motion, or renders it difficult; hindrance; impediment.

3. A wooden shoe; also, a sort of pattern worn by ladies to keep their feet dry in wet weather.

CLOGGINESS, noun The state of being clogged.

CLOGGING, participle present tense Putting on a clog; loading with incumbrance; obstructing; impeding.

CLOGGY, adjective That clogs, or has power to clog; thick; gross.

CLOISTER, noun

1. Literally, a close; a close, or inclosed place. A monastery or nunnery; a house inhabited by monks or nuns. In a more limited sense, the principal part of a regular monastery, consisting of a square, erected between the church, the chapter-house and the refectory, and over which is the dormitory. The proper use of the cloister is for the monks to meet in for conversation. The cloister is square, and has its name from being inclosed on its four sides with buildings. Hence in architecture, a building is said to be in the form of a cloister when there are buildings on each of the four sides of the court.

2. A peristyle; a piazza.

CLOISTER, verb transitive

1. To confine in a cloister or monastery.

2. To shut up; to confine closely within walls; to immure; to shut up in retirement from the world.

CLOISTERAL, adjective Confined to a cloister; retired from the world; recluse.

CLOISTERED, participle passive

1. Shut up in a cloister; inhabiting a monastery.

2. adjective Solitary; retired from the world.

3. Built with peristyles or piazzas; inclosed.

CLOISTERING, participle present tense Shutting up in a monastery; confining; secluding from the world.

CLOISTRESS, noun A nun; a woman who has vowed religious retirement.

CLOKE, noun

1. A loose outer garment worn over other clothes both by men and women.

He was clad with zeal as a cloke Isaiah 59:17.

2. A cover; that which conceals; a disguise or pretext; an excuse; a fair pretense.

Not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness. 1 Peter 2:16.

They have no cloke for their sin. John 15:22.

CLOKE, verb transitive

1. To cover with a cloke

2. To hide; to conceal; to use a false covering.

CLOKED, participle passive Covered with a cloke; concealed under a cover.

CLOKING, participle present tense Covering with a cloke; hiding under an external covering.

CLOMB, preterit tense of climb.

CLONG, old part. Of cling.

CLONIC, adjective Shaking; convulsive; irregular; as clonic spasm.

CLOOM, verb transitive To close with glutinous matter.

CLOSE, verb transitive

1. To shut; to make fast, by pressing together, or by stopping an open place, so as to intercept a passage, in almost any manner; as, to close the eyes; to close a gate, door or window. In these and other cases, closing is performed by bringing an object before the opening. To close a book, is to bring the parts together.

The Lord hath closed your eyes. Isaiah 29:10.

He closed the book. Luke 4:20.

2. To end; to finish; to conclude; to complete; to bring to a period; as, to close a bargain, or contract.

One frugal supper did our studies close

3. To unite, as the parts of a breach or fracture; to make whole; to consolidate; often followed by up.

The Lord closed up the flesh instead thereof. Genesis 2:21.

4. To cover; to inclose; to encompass; to overwhelm.

The depths closed me round about. Jonah 2:5.

5. To inclose; to confine. [See Inclose.]

6. To move or bring together; to unite separate bodies or parts; as, to close the ranks of an army.

CLOSE, verb intransitive s as z.

1. To unite; to coalesce; to come together; as the parts of a wound or fracture, or parts separated; often followed by on or upon.

The fat closed upon the blade. Judges 3:22.

The earth closed upon them. Numbers 16:33.

2. To end; to terminate, or come to a period; as, the debate closed at six oclock.

To close on or upon, to come to a mutual agreement; to agree on or join in.

France and Holland might close upon some measures to our disadvantage.

To close with, to accede to; to consent or agree to; as, to close with the terms proposed. When followed by the person with whom an agreement is made, to make an agreement with; to unite with; as, to close with an enemy.

He took the time when Richard was deposed,

And high and low with happy Harry closed.

In this sense, to close in with is less elegant.

To close with,

To close in with, To unite; to join closely; to grapple, as persons in a contest; applied to wrestlers, when they come to close embrace for scuffling.

CLOSE, adjective

1. Shut fast; tight; made fast, so as to have no opening; as a close box; a close vizard.

2. Having parts firmly united; compact; dense; applied to solid substances of any king; as the close texture of wood or metal.

3. Having parts firmly adhering; viscous; tenacious; as oil, or glue.

4. Confined; stagnant; without ventilation or motion; as close air.

5. Confined; retired.

While David kept himself close 1 Chronicles 12:1.

6. Hid; private; secret; as, to keep a purpose close Numbers 5:13. Luke 9:36.

7. Confined within narrow limits; narrow; as a close alley.

8. Near; within a small distance; as a close fight or action.

9. Joined; in contact or nearly so; crowded; as, to sit close

10. Compressed, as thoughts or words; hence, brief; concise; opposed to loose or diffuse.

Where the original is close no version can reach it in the same compass.

11. Very near, in place or time; adjoining, or nearly so.

I saw him come close to the ram. Daniel 8:7.

They sailed close by Crete. Acts 27:13.

Some dire misfortune follows close behind.

12. Having the quality of keeping secrets, thoughts or designs; cautious; as a close minister. Hence in friendship, trusty; confidential

13. Having an appearance of concealment; implying art, craft or wariness; as a close aspect.

14. Intent; fixed; attentive; pressing upon the object; as, to give close attention.

Keep your mind or thoughts close to the business or subject.

15. Full to the point; home; pressing; as a close argument; bring the argument close to the question.

16. Pressing; earnest; warm; as a close debate.

17. Confined; secluded from communication; as a close prisoner.

18. Covetous; penurious; not liberal; as a close man.

19. Applied to the weather or air, close in popular language, denotes warm and damp, cloudy or foggy, or warm and relaxing, occasioning a sense of lassitude and depression. Perhaps originally, confined air.

20. Strictly adhering to the original; as a close translation.

21. In heraldry, drawn in a coat of arms with the wings close and in a standing posture.

CLOSE communion, with baptists, communion in the Lords supper with their own sect only.

CLOSE election, an election in which the votes for different candidates are nearly equal.

CLOSE, adverb Closely; nearly; densely; secretly; pressingly.

Behind her death close followed, pace for pace.

CLOSED, participle passive Shut; made fast; ended; concluded.

CLOSELY, adverb

1. In a close, compact manner; with the parts united, or pressed together, so as to leave no vent; as a crucible closely luted.

2. Nearly; with little space intervening; applied to space or time; as, to follow closely at ones heels; one event follows closely upon another.

3. Intently; attentively; with the mind or thoughts fixed; with near inspection; as, to look or attend closely

4. Secretly; slyly.

5. With near affection, attachment or interest; intimately; as, men closely connected in friendship; nations closely allied by treaty.

6. Strictly; within close limits; without communication abroad; as a prisoner closely confined.

7. With strict adherence to the original; as, to translate closely

CLOSENESS, noun

1. The state of being shut, pressed together, or united. Hence according to the nature of the thing to which the word is applied.

2. Compactness; solidity; as the closeness of texture in wood or fossils.

3. Narrowness; straitness; as of a place.

4. Tightness in building, or in apartments; firmness of texture in cloth, etc.

5. Want of ventilation; applied to a close room, or to the air confined in it.

6. Confinement or retirement of a person; recluseness; solitude.

7. Reserve in intercourse; secrecy; privacy; caution.

8. Covetousness; penuriousness.

9. Connection; near union; intimacy, whether of friendship, or of interest; as the closeness of friendship, or of alliance.

10. Pressure; urgency; variously applied; as the closeness of an agreement, or of debate; the closeness of a question or inquiry.

11. Adherence to an original; as the closeness of a version.

CLOSER, noun s as z. A finisher; one who concludes.

CLOSER, adjective comparative of close. More close.

CLOSEST, adjective superlative of close. Most close. In these words, s has its proper sound.

CLOSET, noun s as z.

1. A small room or apartment for retirement; any room for privacy.

When thou prayest, inter into thy closet Matthew 6:6.

2. An apartment for curiosities or valuable things.

3. A small close apartment or recess in the side of a room for repositing utensils and furniture.

CLOSET, verb transitive s as z. To shut up in a closet; to conceal; to take into a private apartment for consultation.

CLOSETED, participle passive s as z. Shut up in a closet; concealed.

CLOSETING, participle present tense s as z. Shutting up in a private room; concealing.

CLOSH, noun A disease in the feet of cattle, called also the founder.

CLOSING, participle present tense s as z. Shutting; coalescing; agreeing; ending.

CLOSING, adjective s as z. That ends or concludes; as a closing word or letter.

CLOSING, noun s as z. End; period; conclusion.

CLOSSUS, n. A statue of a gigantic size. The most remarkable colossus of antiquity was one at Rhodes, a statue of Apollo, so high that it is said ships might sail between its legs.

CLOSURE, noun

1. The act of shutting; a closing.

2. That which closes, or shuts; that by which separate parts are fastened or made to adhere.

3. Inclosure; that which confines.

4. Conclusion.

CLOT, noun [See Clod.] A concretion, particularly of soft or fluid matter, which concretes into a mass or lump; as a clot of blood. Clod and clot appear to be radically the same word; but we usually apply clod to a hard mass of earth, and clot to a mass of softer substances, or fluids concreted.

CLOT, verb intransitive

1. To concrete; to coagulate, as soft or fluid matter into a thick, inspissated mass; as milk or blood clots.

2. To form into clots or clods; to adhere; as, clotted glebe.

CLOTH, noun

1. A manufacture or stuff of wool or hair, or of cotton, flax, hemp or other vegetable filaments, formed by weaving or intertexture of threads, and used for garments or other covering and for various other purposes; as woolen cloth linen cloth cotton cloth hair cloth

2. The covering of a table; usually called a tablecloth.

3. The canvas on which pictures are drawn.

4. A texture or covering put to a particular use; as a cloth of state.

5. Dress; raiment. [See Clothes.]

6. The covering of a bed.

CLOTHE, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive clothed, or clad. [See Cloth.]

1. To put on garments; to invest the body with raiment; to cover with dress, for concealing nakedness and defending the body from cold or injuries.

The Lord God made coats of skin and clothed them. Genesis 3:21.

2. To cover with something ornamental.

Embroidered purple clothes the golden beds.

But clothe without the aid of other words, seldom signifies to adorn. In this example from Pope, it signifies merely to cover.

3. To furnish with raiment; to provide with clothes; as, a master is to feed and clothe his apprentice.d

4. To put on; to invest; to cover, as with a garment; as, to clothe thoughts with words.

I will clothe her priests with salvation. Psalms 132:16.

Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Proverbs 23:21.

Let them be clothed with shame. Psalms 35:26.

5. To invest; to surround; to encompass.

The Lord is clothed with majesty. Psa 93.

Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Psa 104.

6. To invest; to give to by commission; as, to clothe with power or authority.

7. To cover or spread over; as, the earth is clothed with verdure.

CLOTHE, verb intransitive To wear clothes.

Care no more to clothe and eat.

CLOTHED, participle passive Covered with garments; dressed; invested; furnished with clothing.

CLOTHES, noun plural Of cloth; pronounced cloze.

1. Garments for the human body; dress; vestments; vesture; a general term for whatever covering is worn, or made to be worn, for decency or comfort.

If I may touch but his clothes I shall be whole. Mark 5:28.

2. The covering of a bed; bed-clothes.

CLOTHIER, noun

1. In English authors, a man who makes cloths; a maker of cloth. In this sense, I believe it is not used in the United States; certainly not in New England.

2. In America, a man whose occupation is to full and dress cloth.

CLOTHING, participle present tense Covering with or putting on vestments of any kind; providing with garments; investing; covering.

CLOTHING, noun

1. Garments in general; clothes; dress; raiment; covering.

As for me--my clothing was sackcloth. Psalms 35:13.

2. The art or practice of making cloth.

The king took measures to instruct the refugees from Flanders in the art of clothing

CLOTPOLL, noun A thickskull; a blockhead. [See Clod-poll.]

CLOTTED, participle passive Concreted into a mass; inspissated; adhering in a lump.

CLOTTER, verb intransitive [from clot.] To concrete or gather into lumps.

CLOTTING, participle present tense Concreting; inspissating; forming into clots.

CLOTTY, adjective [from clot.] Full of clots, or small hard masses; full of concretions, or clods.

CLOUD, noun [I have not found this word in any other language. The sense is obvious--a collection.]

1. A collection f visible vapor, or watery particles, suspended in the atmosphere, at some altitude. A like collection of vapors near the earth is usually called fog.

I do set my bow in the cloud Genesis 9:13.

Behold, a white cloud Revelation 14:14.

2. A state of obscurity or darkness.

3. A collection of smoke, or a dense collection of dust, rising or floating in the air; as a cloud of dust.

A cloud of incense. Ezekiel 8:11.

4. The dark or varied colors, in veins or spots, on stones or other bodies, are called clouds.

5. A great multitude; a vast collection.

Seeing we are encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses. Hebrews 12:1.

CLOUD, verb transitive To overspread with a cloud or clouds; as, the sky is clouded; clouds intercept the rays of the sun. Hence,

2. To obscure; to darken; as, to cloud the day, or truth, or reason.

3. To darken in veins or spots; to variegate with colors; as clouded marble.

4. To make of a gloomy aspect; to give the appearance of sullenness.

What sullen fury clouds his scornful brow.

5. To sully; to tarnish.

CLOUD, verb intransitive To grow cloudy; to become obscure with clouds; sometimes followed by over; as, the sky clouds over.

CLOUDED, participle passive Overcast; overspread with clouds; obscured; darkened; rendered gloomy or sullen; variegated with colored spots or veins.

CLOUDILY, adverb [from cloudy.] With clouds; darkly; obscurely.

CLOUDINESS, noun

1. The state of being overcast with clouds; as the cloudiness of the atmosphere.

2. Obscurity; gloom; want of brightness.

3. Darkness of appearance; variegation of colors in a fossil or other body.

4. Appearance of gloom or sullenness; as cloudiness of aspect.

CLOUDING, participle present tense Overspreading with clouds; obscuring; giving an appearance of gloom or sullenness.

CLOUDLESS, adjective Being without a cloud; unclouded; clear; bright; luminous; as cloudless skies.

CLOUDY, adjective

1. Overcast with clouds; obscured with clouds; as a cloudy day; a cloudy sky; a cloudy night.

2. Consisting of a cloud or clouds; as a cloudy pillar. Exodus 33:9.

3. Obscure; dark; not easily understood; as cloudy and confused notions.

4. Having the appearance of gloom; indicating gloom, anxiety, sullenness, or illnature; not open or cheerful; as cloudy looks.

5. Indicating gloom or sullenness; as cloudy wrath.

6. Marked with veins or spots of dark or various hues, as marble.

7. Not bright; as a cloudy diamond.

CLOUGH, noun cluf. A cleft in a hill. In commerce, an allowance of two pounds in every hundred weight, for the turn of the scale, that the commodity may hold out in retailing.

CLOUT, noun

1. A patch; a piece of cloth or leather, etc., to close a breach.

2. A piece of cloth for mean purposes.

3. A piece of white cloth, for archers to shoot at.

4. An iron plate on an axle tree, to keep it from wearing.

5. A small nail

6. In vulgar language, a blow with the hand.

CLOUT, verb transitive

1. To patch; to mend by sewing on a piece or patch; as clouted shoon, in Milton. This is the sense as understood by Johnson. Mason understands the word clouted to signify nailed, studded with small nails, from the French clouter, and the following words in Shakespeare, Whose rudeness answered my steps too loud, give some countenance to Masons interpretation. In this case, the verb clout must signify, to nail, or fasten with nails; to stud.

2. To cover with a piece of cloth.

3. To join clumsily; as clouted sentences.

4. To cover or arm with an iron plate.

5. To strike; to give a blow.

CLOUTed cream, in Gay, is evidently a mistake for clotted cream.

CLOUTED, participle passive Patched; mended clumsily; covered with a clout.

CLOUTERLY, adjective Clumsy; awkward.

CLOVE, preterit tense of cleave.

CLOVE, noun [See Cleave.] A cleft; a fissure; a gap; a ravine. This word, though properly an appellative, is not often used as such in English; bu 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.

CLOVE, noun

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.

2. [from cleave.] The parts into which garlic separates, when the outer skin is removed.

3. A certain weight; seven pounds of wool; eight pounds of cheese or butter.

CLOVEN, participle passive of cleave. Divided; parted; pronounced clovn.

CLOVER,

CLOVER-GRASS, noun 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

CLOVERED, adjective Covered with clover.

CLOWN, noun A countryman; a rustic; hence, one who has the manners of a rustic; a churl; a man of coarse manners; an ill-bred man.

CLOWNAGE, noun The manners of a clown.

CLOWNERY, noun Ill-breeding; rustic behavior; rudeness of manners.

CLOWNISH, adjective

1. Containing clowns; consisting of rustics; as a clownish neighborhood.

2. Coarse; hard; rugged; rough; as clownish hands.

3. Of rough manners; ill-bred; as a clownish fellow.

4. Clumsy; awkward; as a clownish gait.

CLOY, verb transitive

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?

2. To spike up a gun; to drive a spike into the vent.

3. In farriery, to prick a horse in shoeing.

[In the two latter senses, I believe the word is little used, and not at all in America.]

CLOYED, participle passive Filled; glutted; filled to satiety and lothing; spiked; pricked in shoeing.

CLOYING, participle present tense Filling; filling to satety, or disgust.

CLOYLESS, adjective That cannot cloy, or fill to satiety.

CLOYMENT, noun Surfeit; repletion beyond the demands of appetite.

CLUB, noun

1. Properly, a stick or piece or 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. Ca. 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.

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.

CLUB, verb intransitive

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.

2. To pay an equal proportion of a common reckoning or charge.

CLUB, verb transitive

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.

2. In common parlance, to raise or turn uppermost the britch or club of a musket; as, the soldiers clubbed their muskets.

CLUBBED, participle passive

1. Collected into a sum and averaged, as different expenses.

2. United to one end or effect.

3. Shaped like a club.

4. Having the britch turned upwards, as a musket.

5. Heavy like a club.

CLUBBER,

CLUBBING, participle present tense Joining in a club; uniting to a common end.

CLUBBIST, noun One who belongs to a party, club or association.

CLUCK, verb intransitive To make the noise, or utter the voice of the domestic hen, when sitting on eggs for hatching, and when conducting her chickens. This voice, with the change of the vowel, is precisely our word clack and clock, and is probably an onomatopy. [See Clack and Clock.]

CLUCK, verb transitive To call chickens by a particular sound.

CLUCKING, participle present tense Uttering the voice of a sitting hen; calling chickens.

CLUE. [See Clew.]

CLUMP, noun

1. A thick, short piece of wood, or other solid substance; a shapeless mass. Hence clumper, a clot or clod.

2. A cluster of trees or shrubs; formerly written plump. In some parts of England, it is an adjective signifying lazy, unhandy.

CLUMPS, noun [from clump.] A stupid fellow; a numskull.

CLUMSILY, adverb [from clumsy.] In a clumsy manner; awkwardly; in an unhandy manner; without readiness, dexterity or grace.

CLUMSINESS, noun The quality of being short and thick, and moving heavily; awkwardness; unhandiness; ungainliness; want of readiness, nimbleness or dexterity.

CLUMSY, adjective s as z. [from clump, lump.]

1. Properly, short and thick, like a clump or lump. Hence,

2. Moving heavily, slowly or awkwardly; as clumsy fingers.

3. Awkward; ungainly; unhandy; artless; without readiness, dexterity or grace; as a clumsy man; a clumsy fellow.

4. Ill-made; badly constructed; as a clumsy garment; clumsy verse.

CLUNCH, noun Among miners, indurated clay, found in coal pits next to the coal.

CLUNG, preterit tense and participle passive of cling, which see.

CLUNG, verb intransitive To shrink. See Cling.

CLUNIAC, noun One of a reformed order of Benedictine monks, so called from Cluni in Burgundy.

CLUSTER, noun

1. A bunch; a number of things of the same kind growing or joined together; a knot; as a cluster of raisins.

2. A number of individuals or things collected or gathered into a close body; as a cluster of bees; a cluster of people.

3. A number of things situated near each other; as a cluster of governments in Italy.

CLUSTER, verb intransitive

1. To grow in clusters; to gather or unite in a bunch, or bunches; as, clustering grapes.

2. To form into flakes; as, clustering snow.

3. To collect into flocks or crowds.

CLUSTER, verb transitive To collect into a bunch or close body.

CLUSTERED, participle passive Collected into a cluster, or crowd; crowded.

CLUSTERING, participle present tense Growing in a cluster or in bunches; uniting in a bunch, or in a flock, crowd, or close body.

CLUSTERY, adjective Growing in clusters. Full of clusters.

CLUTCH, verb transitive

1. To double in the fingers and pinch or compress them together; to clinch. [If n is not radical in clinch, this may be from the same root.]

2. To seize, clasp or gripe with the hand; as, to clutch a dagger; to clutch prey.

3. To seize, or grasp; as, to clutch the globe at a grasp.

CLUTCH, noun A griping or pinching with the fingers; seizure; grasp.

CLUTCHES, plural

1. The paws or talons of a rapacious animal, as of a cat or dog.

2. The hands, in the sense of rapacity or cruelty, or of power.

CLUTING, participle present tense Patching; covering with a clout.

CLUTTER, noun

1. A heap or assemblage of things lying in confusion; a word of domestic application.

He saw what a clutter there was with huge pots, pans and spits.

2. Noise; bustle. [This sense seems allied to clatter, but it is not the sense of the word in noun England.]

CLUTTER, verb transitive To crowd together in disorder; to fill with things in confusion; as, to clutter a room; to clutter the house.

CLUTTER, verb intransitive To make a bustle, or fill with confusion.

[The English lexicographers explain this word by noise and bustle; but probably by mistake.]

CLUTTERED, participle passive Encumbered with things in disorder.

CLUTTERING, participle present tense Encumbering with things in confusion.

CLYSTER, noun An injection; a liquid substance injected into the lower intestines, for the purpose of promoting alvine discharges, relieving from costiveness, and cleansing the bowels. Sometimes it is administered to nourish and support patients who cannot swallow aliment.

CLYSTERWISE, adverb In the manner of a clyster.