clod - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English clod, a late by-form of clot, from Old English clot, from Proto-West Germanic *klott (“mass, ball, clump”). Compare clot and cloud; cognate to kloot (“clod”).

Alternatively, Middle English clod may derive from Old English *clod (found in Old English clodhamer (“a kind of thrush”) and Clodhangra (a placename)), from Proto-West Germanic *kloddō (“lump, clod”), from *gel- (“to ball up, become lumpy”), related to West Frisian klodde (“clod, lump”), Dutch klodde (“lump, blob”).

clod (plural clods)

  1. A lump of something, especially earth or clay.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      clods of iron and brass
    • 1600, Edward Fairfax (translator), originally published in 1581 by Torquato Tasso, w:Jerusalem Delivered
      clods of blood
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      The earth that casteth up from the plough a great clod, is not so good as that which casteth up a smaller clod.
    • 1906, Mark Twain, Eve's Diary:
      One of the clods took it back of the ear, and it used language. It gave me a thrill, for it was the first time I had ever heard speech, except my own.
  2. The ground; the earth; a spot of earth or turf.
  3. A stupid person, a dolt, a clodpate, a clodhopper.
    • 1906, Robert Barr, The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont:
      'What was its number?'
      'I don't know, sir.'
      'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest, and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'
    • 1998, Chickenpox (episode of South Park TV series)
      Gerald Broflovski: You see Kyle, we humans work as a society, and in order for a society to thrive, we need gods and clods.
    • 2015, "Jail Break" (episode of Steven Universe TV series)
      Peridot: Don't touch that! You clods don't know what you're doing!
  4. Part of a shoulder of beef, or of the neck piece near the shoulder.
    Holonym: chuck
    Comeronym: chuck roll

lump of something, especially of earth or clay

stupid person

clod (third-person singular simple present clods, present participle clodding, simple past and past participle clodded)

  1. (transitive) To pelt with clods.
    • 1906, Mark Twain, Eve's Diary:
      "When I went there yesterday evening in the gloaming it had crept down and was trying to catch the little speckled fishes that play in the pool, and I had to clod it to make it go up the tree again and let them alone."
    • 1959, Louis L'Amour, The First Fast Draw:
      when I came out and started to hoist it to the mule's back they rushed at me and jerked my suspenders down and then they clodded me with chunks of dirt
  2. (transitive, Scotland) To throw violently; to hurl.
  3. To collect into clods, or into a thick mass; to coagulate; to clot.
    • 1610, Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victorie and Triumph:
      Clodded in lumps of clay.

“clod”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

A late by-form of clot of unclear provenance. Compare Old English *clod, a form of clot found in compounds and placenames.

clod (plural cloddes)

  1. A clod; a ball of earth or clay.
  2. (rare) A clot or clump of blood.
  3. (rare) A shoulder of beef.

From Proto-Brythonic *klod, from Proto-Celtic *klutom (“rumour; fame”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“heard, famous”) (whence also clywed (“to hear”)).

clod m (plural clodydd)

  1. praise, renown, credit
  2. distinction (in exam results)