Etymology From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- (“to glue, paste, stick together”). Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.
Usually A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377, column 2:
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Usually An earth material with ductile qualities.
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Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports, TennisUsually A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
The French Open is played on clay.
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Biblical, Lifestyle, ReligionUsually The material of the human body.
From clay we are made.
Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 10:8-9:
1 more example
But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 64:8:
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Geography, Geology, Natural sciencesUsually A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
Etymology From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- (“to glue, paste, stick together”). Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.
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To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
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Of sugar To purify using clay.
1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies, They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.
The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.1985, Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835, page 200: