So 5–; also 5–7 clodde, 6 clodd. [Appears in 14th c. as a variant of CLOT; after which the two forms were long entirely synonymous, but they have subsequently been differentiated, the typical senses being now respectively as in a clod of earth, and a clot of blood.
But OE. had already clod-hamer field-fare, and Clodhangra pr. name; clod must be old in Teutonic: cf. Grimm, kloder, and klod, klot, cited under it. The vb. stem glu-, gleu-, in Teut. klu-, kleu-, ‘glomerare’ (see CLEW), would give a sb. glu-tó-, whence OTeut. klu-dó-, OE. clod.]
† 1. A mass forned by the coagulation of anything liquid, esp. blood. Obs. (now CLOT.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. vii. (1495), 89. Anone as the blood is out of the body anone it rennyth and tornyth in to cloddes.
1545. Raynold, Byrth of Mankind (1552), 44 b. Great lumpes, kakes, or cloddes of bloud, congeled togeather.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, VII. liv. His locks with clods of bloud and dust bedight.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 25 b (J.). Fishermen … doe sometimes light on these Swallowes, congealed in clods, of a slymie substance.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 62. We found several Clods of Blood.
2. A coherent mass or lump of any solid matter, e.g., a clod of earth, loam, etc. (Formerly, and dialectally still sometimes, CLOT. See also CLOUD 2.)
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 73. To preve it [thi lande] fatte, a clodde avisely To take … and loke if it be glewy.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 458 b. A clodd of earth which they doe affirme, was under Christes feete when he raysed Lazarus.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 65. A clod of waiward marle.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 565. One … at the Forge … two massie clods of Iron and Bras Had melted.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 154. To think … that a clod of earth in a sack may ever by eternal shaking receive the fabrick of man’s body.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. vii. 261. Cresphontes … threw a clod of earth into the water.
3. spec. A lump of earth or clay adhering together. (Formerly CLOT.)
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Clodde, gleba.
1570. Levins, Manip., 155/25. A clodde, clot, gleba.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 23 b. The Feelde is saide to be … broken up when it is first plowed lying in great Cloddes.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 139. The Peasant … pounds with Rakes The crumbling Clods.
1722. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. II. 93. Clods and stones were thrown at him.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxvi. 111. Those words fell on his heart like clods upon a coffin.
b. As a substance, without pl.: The soil or dust of the ground in its lumpy character. Often a depreciatory term for the earth in its unpleasant associations.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 100. Leaue wheat little clod, for to couer the head.
1601. Dent, Pathw. Heaven, 86. If they [the covetous] were not altogether hardened and blinded by the diuel, they would not be so neerly knit to the clod, and the penny, as they are.
1795. Southey, Vis. Maid Orleans, I. 107. The finely-fibred frame … [shall] mingle soon With the cold clod.
1845. Hirst, Poems, 52. Long ere this, upon my breast The clod had lain.
1880. Howells, Undisc. Country, iii. 57. Shallow sciences which trace man backward to the brute, and forward to the clod.
c. The ball of earth that adheres about the root of a tree or plant. (Formerly CLOT.)
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., 9. Orange-Trees make no Clod, or Union, so as ’tis very difficult to … change them upon occasion.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 157. Trees raised with their Clod or Earth about them. Ibid. Planting Trees in their Clod.
1828. Steuart, Planter’s G., 39. With as much of the clod about the roots as possible.
d. A lump of turf with the adherent earth; a sod, a peat. Obs. exc. dial. Formerly also CLOT.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. Divers New Exper., 12. Where fewell is deere, they vse to make cloddes, or turfs of them.
1609. Manch. Court Leet Records (1885), II. 242. Cart loades of greene clods out of the lords wasts.
1884. Chesh. Gloss., Clod, a sod.
e. A bit of turf, spot of ground. dial. or techn.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 251/2. The Clod is the green Sod on which … Cocks … fight, which is generally round that all may see.
1865. E. Waugh, Besom Ben, v. 54, in Lanc. Gloss., s.v., Th’ dog would ha’ toucht noan o’ thee, iv thae’d bin upo’ thi own clod.
4. fig. Applied depreciatively to the human body as being a mass of ‘clay’; also to a human being as a ‘child of clay,’ or as ‘of the earth, earthy.’
1595. Spenser, Epithal., 411. A thousand torches … to us wretched earthly clods … lend desired light.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 163. The Audacious Clod, Commanded Worship, to himself, as God.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., i. 15. How the purer Spirit is united to this clod, is a knot too hard for our degraded intellects to unty.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 786. The Spirit of Man Which God inspir’d, cannot together perish With this corporeal Clod.
1798. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Tales of Hoy, Wks. 1812, IV. 405. Howl for ever for a breathless clod.
1866. J. H. Newman, Gerontius, iv. 26. Low-born clods Of brute earth.
5. fig. A blockhead, clodpate; a clodhopper.
[1579. J. Stubbes, Gaping Gulf, D j b. Turne vnder perpetuall slauery, as cloddes the country people.]
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, III. i. 9. Not bred ’mongst clods and clodpoles.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. (1851), 362. Rather then spend words with this fleamy clodd of an Antagonist.
1793. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. Pope, Wks. 1812, III. 211. Clap to the wheel your shoulder, Master Clod.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., I. xiii. 175. Jolter-headed clods.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., iv. 22. The Doones were of very high birth, as all we clods of Exmoor knew.
attrib. 1735. Savage, Progr. Divine, 85. When the clod justice some horse-laugh wou’d raise.
† 6. Sc. A small loaf of coarse unleavened bread.
1685. R. Brown, Lintoun Green, I. 8 (1817) (Jam.).
| Like horse-potatoes, sutors’-clods | |
| In Selkirk town were rife; | |
| O’ flour baked, brown, and rough as sods, | |
| By ilka sutor’s wife. |
a. 1774. Fergusson, Poems, xi. (1789), 79 (Jam.). Our cottar childer … Toil for pease-clods and gud lang kail.
1790. Shirrefs, Poems, 245 (Jam.). Clods and Souters brandy.
7. Fishing. = BAB. (See quots.)
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. (1880), 92.
1885. Sat. Rev., 21 Nov., 673/1. The ‘bab,’ or ‘clod,’ as it is sometimes called, is a number of lobworms threaded on pieces of worsted, and all tied up in a bunch not unlike a small mop…. Norfolk ‘babbers’ … catch … eels.
8. The coarse part of the neck of an ox, nearest the shoulder.
1601. Q. Eliz., Househ. Bk., in Househ. Ord. (1790), 288. He [the serjeant of the Larder] hath for his fee two cloddes, one little rumpe, chine of beefe, of every oxe that is sent in the Queene’s house.
1842. P. Parley’s Ann., III. 132. Her dinner, consisting of six ounces of boiled clod of beef.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 10 Nov., 9/2. Every ox ‘has two clods and two stickings,’ which do not sell for more than 4d. a pound.
† 9. (See quot.) Obs.
1678. in Phil. Trans., XII. 1003. The outer parts, or Cuticle (or, as the Author calls them, Clods) of the Hair.
10. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 25. Partings will occur, of clod or various earthy material.
1879. Shropsh. Word-bk., Clod, shale found in the coal measures.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Clod, soft shale or slate … usually applied to a layer forming a bad roof.
11. A heavy solid blow. dial. Cf. CLOD v. 5, 6.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 Nov., 4/2. The man … lost his temper, and hit her a ‘clod’ in the head…. A clod is a heavy, lumping blow.
12. Comb., as clod-breaker; clod-brown, -tongued adjs.; clod-crusher, (a.) a machine for crushing the clods left by the plow; (b.) a person who walks heavily; also clod-crushing; clod-fishing, fishing for eels with a CLOD 7; † clod-fist, a heavy clumsy fist; clod-head, clod skull, a CLOD-PATE; clod-mall, -mell, a large wooden mallet or hammer for breaking clods (arch.); † clod-salt, the salt that adheres in clots to the bottom of the salt-pans.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, ix. The old miserly *clod-breaker called me pettifogger.
1881. Duffield, Don Quix., II. 493. Calling her a … clodbreaker’s or hempspinner’s daughter.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 124. The *clod-brown lark that hail’d the morn.
1842. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm (1851), II. 28. Crosskill’s *clod-crusher … one of the most efficient implements of its class.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v., One form of clod-crusher consists of a series of cast-metal rings … placed loosely upon a round axle, and revolving thereon independently of each other.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. ii. 76. Shee multiplyed her *clod-fists … about the muzard of him.
1644. Col. Chadwick, Lett., in 4th Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS., 275/2. Being *clodheads merely sensible and sensuall.
1794. Agric. Surv. Berwick, p. xxxii. (Jam.). To break the clods … used formerly to be done … by hand with *clod-mells, or wooden mallets.
1879. Shropsh. Word-bk., Clod-mall, a large wooden hammer employed for breaking clods.
1884. Chesh. Gloss., Clod-maw.
1674. Ray, Collect. Eng. Words, Salt-making Cheshire, A cake which sticks to the bottom of the pan (which they call *clod salt).
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 95. Clod-salt … is there [at Droyt-witch] the strongest salt of all.
1707. E. Ward, Hudibras Rediv. (1715), II. ix. When *Clod-skulls, at the worst o’ th’ hay, By brutal Rage shall make their Way.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Sept., 1/2. Lord Hartington, as usual, has been, with one or two exceptions, unimpassioned and *clod-tongued—stolid and solid.
Hence Clodward a., towards the clods, earthy.
1883. W. Arthur, Fernley Lect., 71. The most clodward thinker that ever bent his looks down.
