[f. the sb. In some later senses there is perh. association with CLAG v., although in dialects in which both words are used, e.g., in south of Scotland, they are kept quite distinct, clag always implying stickiness, and clog load. Senses 5–6 appear to run together with those of CLOY v.]
1. trans. To fasten a clog or heavy block of wood to; to fetter or confine by this means.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xiv. (1495), 774. An oxe herde fedeth … oxen: and byndeth their fete … and cloggith them whyle they ben in pasture.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1392/2. His master … manie times caused him to be chained, locked, and clogged, to staie his running awaie.
1658. Ussher, Ann., V. 91. Being clogged with chaines of steel, he was carried away from thence to Babylon.
a. 1822. Shelley, Ess. & Lett., Reviv. Lit. (Camelot Ser.), 147. Superstition … has … clogged man to earth.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 514. Horses … clogged with a bar of wood.
2. transf. To load so as to entangle or impede the motion of; to encumber, hamper.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. 101. With their fingers clogged with rings.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. xii. (1622), 338. Hence ’tis, the Delver bound and clogd in clowted buskin, sings.
1725. Pope, Odyss., V. 410. Clogg’d by the cumbrous vest Calypso gave.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), II. xv. 300. The whole flotilla would be clogged by the slowness of the sailing-vessels.
† b. To load. Obs.
(Johnson says ‘In the following passage it is improper, for its meaning always includes hindrance.’)
1691. Ray, Creation, II. 58 (R.). Though the Screws and Teeth of the Wheels and Nuts be never so smooth and polished, yet if they be not oyl’d, will hardly move, though you clog them with never so much weight.
3. fig. To load, burden, encumber, hamper.
1564. Becon, New Catech. (1844), 300. In things that be indifferent, we must … clog no man’s conscience.
1618. E. Elton, Exp. Romans vii. (1622), 115. Christ cals all to him that are weary and loden, clogged with the yoke and burden of their sinnes.
1647. Cowley, Mistress, Soul (1669), 42. Clogging it [an Estate] with Legacies.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. iv. 23. The power of exchanging must have been much clogged.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., II. II. v. 228. To avoid … the combinations of consonants that clog our language.
1857. C. Brontë, Professor, II. xxiii. 175. Man is ever clogged with his mortality.
b. fig. To hinder, impede, obstruct (actions).
1715. South, Serm., 1 Kings xiii. 33. 128. The Devotion of Men is apt to be clogged by such Ceremonies.
1742. Col. Rec. Penn., IV. 542. Everything that tendered to Clog the Importation of them.
1775. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 55. A minority cannot make or carry on a war; but a minority … may clog a war.
1876. Green, Short Hist., viii. 7. 539. The old loyalty, too, clogged their enterprise.
4. To encumber or impede as clay or other sticky matter by adhesion. Cf. to CLAG.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 294. Clogged in the claye and slyme of vyce.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. ii. 66. If … you finde so much blood in his Liuer, as will clog the foote of a flea.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 222 (1811), 232. Clawton … a place full of clay … insomuch, that a proverbial speech passeth thereon: ‘The Devil was clogged in Clawmore.’
1886. G. Allen, Kalee’s Shrine, xiii. 144. Sinking in water ’s bad enough, but sinking in mud ’s ten thousand times more terrible. It clogs you and hampers you on every side.
5. To fill up with anything that impedes or obstructs action or function, to encumber; esp. to choke up so as to hinder free passage, to obstruct.
(In the first quot., prob. an error for cloy.)
1586. Hatton, in Campbell, Chancellors (1857), II. xlv. 276. They had conspired to … clog all the great ordnance.
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 141. A world of these statues … in every room in the house, which they clog rather than adorn.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth (1722), 19. Air … Clogg’d with gross Vapours.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, I. 454. Famine … Mark’d the gorged raven clog his beak with gore.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 646. Until it so clogs the type, that the work is often rendered scarcely legible.
1844. Dufton, Deafness, 77. When the Eustachian tube is clogged up with mucus.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. 46. The road … was clogged with carriages.
† 6. fig. To satiate, surfeit, cloy. Obs.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), 65. Thus clogg’d with loue, with passions and with griefe.
1610. Healey, Vives’ Comm. St. Aug. Citie of God (1620), 551. I do but glance at this for fear of clogging my reader.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. Woman, Wks. 1730, I. 57. Clogg’d with incest and adultery To lusts more strange … they fly.
7. intr. (for refl.) To become encumbered or obstructed, to stick. lit. and fig.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Praise, iii. When thou dost on businesse blow, It hangs, it clogs.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 214. Move it sometimes with a Broom or Whisk, that the seeds clog not together.
1739. S. Sharp, Surg., xxvii. 146 (J.). In working through the Bone, the Teeth of the Saw will begin to clog by that time you arrive to the Diploe.
8. trans. To put clogs on. [f. the sb., sense 6.]
1837. Southey, Lett. (1856), IV. 497. It is time for me to … clog and coat myself, and sally forth to face the storm.
9. To put wooden soles on (shoes, etc.).
1640. [see CLOGGING vbl. sb. 2]. Common in north of England and south of Scotland: e.g., ‘Take the shoes to the clogger who will clog them for the winter.’
