Also 4–6 claus, 5 clawse, clausse. [a. OF. clause, ad. late or med.L. clausa, app. in sense of L. clausula close of a period or formula, conclusion, clause, dim. of *clausa, itself not recorded as sb. in ancient Latin; f. L. claudĕre, claus-um to CLOSE. Cf. Pr. clauza; It. uses clausula.]
1. A short sentence; a single passage or member of a discourse or writing; a distinct part or member of a sentence, esp. in Gramm. Analysis, one containing a subject and predicate.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 46. Vour crevices a uour halue, mid teos uour efter clauses. Crux fugat omne malum, [etc.].
c. 1300. Cursor M., 25257 (Cott. Galba). Þis claus es cald þe thrid bone, Fader in erth þi will be done.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, Prol. 72. Constrewe ich clause with þe culorum.
1413. Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, I. xv. (1859), 12. I can speke neyther word ne clause.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 556. The testimony of Dauid … doth in a maner conteine three sundry members or clauses.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. i. 165. Do not extort thy reasons from this clause, For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., vii. 751. Why thunder’d this peculiar clause against us, All-mortal, and All-wretched!
1865. Dalgleish, Gram. Analysis, 15. A phrase is a combination of words without a predicate; a clause is a term of a sentence containing a predicate within itself; as, a man who is wise.
b. (= L. clausula.) The close or end of a period.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 80. Clawse or poynte (or clos P.), clausula (clausa P).
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. iv. § 2. Men began to hunt more after … the choiceness of the phrase … and the sweet falling of the clauses.
2. A particular and separate article, stipulation, or proviso, in any formal or legal document.
Often used with attribute or defining phrase as Codicillary Clause, Penal Clause, Saving Clause, etc. Also, in Sc. Law, Clause of Devolution, a clause devolving an office or duty upon a person in certain contingent circumstances; Clause irritant, a clause in a deed of settlement by which the acts and deeds of a proprietor contrary to the conditions of his rights become null and void; Clause resolutive, a clause by which the rights of a proprietor rendered null and void by a clause irritant, become resolved and extinguished. (See 1807–8 Bell, Dict. Law Scotl.)
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 679. He shall me never binde in soche a clause.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (1835), Introd. 1. The formal cause [he] Settyth in dew ordre clause be clause.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 42. Pream., A Clause of Warantise accordyng to the seid dede.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 45 a. Without anye suche clause sette or put in the deede.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VIII. § 6. Add thereto an express clause of special provision.
1730. Baker’s Chron., an. 1678 (R.). [A bill] for exclusion of all popish members to sit in … parliament (with a clause in favour of the Duke of York).
1792. Anecd. W. Pitt, II. xxix. 125. There is a clause in the Act of Settlement, to oblige every Minister to sign his name to the advice which he gives his Sovereign.
1858. Bright, Sp. India, 24 June. I am not proposing any clause in the Bill.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xviii. 23. The passing of a statute of twenty clauses.
† 3. Close, conclusion. Obs.
[1275. Stat. Westm., I. Pream., In crastino clausi Paschae.]
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., IV. xix. (1588), 600. The clause of Easter.
1630. M. Godwyn, trans. Ann. Eng., 301. God was pleased he should end his long life … with so happy a clause.
1634–5. in N. Riding Rec., IV. 24. After the clause of Easter next.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 100. Be thou merry late and air This is the final end and clause.
† 4. Clause-rolls (Rotuli clausi): = CLOSE ROLLS.
1700. Tyrell, Hist. Eng., II. 837. These Letters … remain upon Record in the Tower on the Clause Roll of this Year.
