Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)

Displaying 2 result(s) from the 1913 edition:

Clay (Page: 263)

Clay (?), n. [AS. cl\'d6g; akin to LG. klei, D. klei, and perh. to AS. clām clay, L. glus, gluten glue, Gr. glutinous substance, E. glue. Cf. Clog.]

1. A soft earth, which is plastuc, or may be molded with the hands, consisting of hydrous silicate of alumunium. It is the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.

2. (Poetry & Script.) Earth in general, as representing the elementary particles of the human body; hence, the human body as formed from such particles.

I also am formed out of the clay. Job xxxiii. 6.

The earth is covered thick with other clay, Which her own clay shall cover. Byron.

Bowlder clay. See under Bowlder. -- Brick clay, the common clay, containing some iron, and therefore turning red when burned. -- Clay cold, cold as clay or earth; lifeless; inanimate. -- Clay ironstone, an ore of iron consisting of the oxide or carbonate of iron mixed with clay or sand. -- Clay marl, a whitish, smooth, chalky clay. -- Clay mill, a mill for mixing and tempering clay; a pug mill. -- Clay pit, a pit where clay is dug. -- Clay slate (Min.), argillaceous schist; argillite. -- Fatty clays, clays having a greasy feel; they are chemical compounds of water, silica, and aluminia, as halloysite, bole, etc. -- Fire clay , a variety of clay, entirely free from lime, iron, or an alkali, and therefore infusible, and used for fire brick. -- Porcelain clay, a very pure variety, formed directly from the decomposition of feldspar, and often called kaolin. -- Potter's clay, a tolerably pure kind, free from iron.
Clay (Page: 263)
Clay, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Clayed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Claying.]
1. To cover or manure with clay.
2. To clarify by filtering through clay, as sugar.
Displaying 1 result(s) from the 1828 edition:

CLAY, n.
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.
CLAY, v.t.
1. To cover or manure with clay.
2. To purify and whiten with clay, as sugar.