CLAY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Clay mean? 

• CLAY (noun)
  The noun CLAY has 5 senses:

1. a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired

2. water soaked soil; soft wet earth

3. United States general who commanded United States forces in Europe from 1945 to 1949 and who oversaw the Berlin airlift (1897-1978)

4. United States politician responsible for the Missouri Compromise between free and slave states (1777-1852)

5. the dead body of a human being

  Familiarity information: CLAY used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("clay" is a kind of...):

dirt; soil (the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock)

Meronyms (substance of "clay"):

atomic number 14; Si; silicon (a tetravalent nonmetallic element; next to oxygen it is the most abundant element in the earth's crust; occurs in clay and feldspar and granite and quartz and sand; used as a semiconductor in transistors)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clay"):

adobe (the clay from which adobe bricks are made)

argil (a white clay (especially a white clay used by potters))

china clay; china stone; kaolin; kaoline; porcelain clay; terra alba (a fine usually white clay formed by the weathering of aluminous minerals (as feldspar); used in ceramics and as an absorbent and as a filler (e.g., in paper))

red clay (clay whose redness results from iron oxide)

pipeclay; terra alba (fine white clay used in making tobacco pipes and pottery and in whitening leather)

bentonite (an absorbent aluminum silicate clay formed from volcanic ash)

fireclay (a heat-resistant clay)

Kitty Litter (granulated clay; placed in a container where it absorbs the waste products of a cat or dog)

potter's clay; potter's earth (clay that does not contain any iron; used in making pottery or for modeling)

daub (material used to daub walls)

Holonyms ("clay" is a substance of...):

brick (rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln; used as a building or paving material)

roofing tile; tile (a thin flat slab of fired clay used for roofing)

clayware; pottery (ceramic ware made from clay and baked in a kiln)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Water soaked soil; soft wet earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

clay; mud

Hypernyms ("clay" is a kind of...):

dirt; soil (the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clay"):

bleaching clay; bleaching earth (an adsorbent clay that will remove coloring from oils)

mud pie (a mass of mud that a child has molded into the shape of pie)

mire; slop (deep soft mud in water or slush)

Sense 3

Meaning:

United States general who commanded United States forces in Europe from 1945 to 1949 and who oversaw the Berlin airlift (1897-1978)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Clay; Lucius Clay; Lucius DuBignon Clay

Instance hypernyms:

full general; general (a general officer of the highest rank)

Sense 4

Meaning:

United States politician responsible for the Missouri Compromise between free and slave states (1777-1852)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Clay; Henry Clay; the Great Compromiser

Instance hypernyms:

pol; political leader; politician; politico (a person active in party politics)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The dead body of a human being

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

cadaver; clay; corpse; remains; stiff

Context example:

honor comes to bless the turf that wraps their clay

Hypernyms ("clay" is a kind of...):

body; dead body (a natural object consisting of a dead animal or person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clay"):

cremains (the remains of a dead body after cremation)

 Context examples 

Indeed, she trod the earth lightly, and in her constitution there was little of the robust clay.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They also say that not all types of clay are beneficial.

(Clay fights MRSA, other 'superbugs' in wounds, National Science Foundation)

He can't hurt those big boxes: they are invoiced as "clay," and to pull them about is as harmless a thing as he can do.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Every shade of colour they were—straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real vivid flame-coloured tint.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nine lines etched on ancient clay tablets that tell the Gilgamesh Flood story can now be understood in very different ways – according to a Cambridge academic.

(‘Trickster god’ used fake news in Babylonian Noah story, University of Cambridge)

It was another instance of the plasticity of his clay, of his capacity for being moulded by the pressure of environment.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Their substance was not mere human clay.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

On the palm were three little pyramids of black, doughy clay.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The tomb contains a mummy wrapped in linen, clay vessels, a collection of about 450 statues, and painted wooden funerary masks.

(Discovery of Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Announced in Egypt, VOA)

The horse made me a sign to go in first; it was a large room with a smooth clay floor, and a rack and manger, extending the whole length on one side.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)