Forms: 1 *clufu, pl. clufe, 4 clof, 5 clowe, 4–7 cloue, 6– clove. [OE. clufu f., corresp. to MLG., MDu. klōve, clōve, Du. kloof, cleft:—OTeut. *kluƀâ-, *kloƀâ-; f. weak-grade stem of *kleuf-, CLEAVE. Closely related to OHG. chlobo masc., MHG. klobe, ON. klofi, cleft, cloven thing. Cf. OHG. chlobolouh, chlofolouh, MHG. klobelouch, knobelouch, mod.G. knoblauch, MLG. kloflók, MDu. cloflooc, Du. knoflook, ‘garlic,’ lit. ‘clove-leek.’]
1. One of the small bulbs that make up the compound bulb of garlic, shallot, etc.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 336. Twa clufe þære clufehtan wenwyrte. Ibid., II. 350. Garleaces .iii. clufe.
c. 1314. Guy Warw. (A.), 3644. Bodi & soule no nouȝt þer-of No is nouȝt worþ a lekes clof.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. x. (Tollem. MS.). Of euery cloue of garlek set comeþ a plaunte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 84. Clowe of garlykke (1499 cloue of garlek or other lyke).
1530. Palsgr., 206/2. Clove of garlyke, teste dail.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. B iiij b. When it [Wild Garlic] is rype it hathe sede in the tope euen lyke vnto the cloues whyche growe in the roote but they are lesse.
1695. Westmacott, Script. Herb., 79. Garlick is propagated by its Cloves (as well as by its Seed).
1879. Addison, Econ. Cookery, 17. A few cloves of garlic.
2. A natural division or segment of a fruit.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 183. The Iacke … within is soft and tender full of golden coloured Cloues including graines flat and globous.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. I. vii. 125. Within this shell the Fruit [Mangastan] appears in 3 or 4 Cloves, about the bigness of the top of a man’s thumb. These will easily separate each from the other.
1707. W. Funnell, Voy. Round World, x. 286. The Fruit … lies in Cloves almost like Garlick.
† 3. One of the divisions of a cloven hoof; cf. CLOOF. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 95. The outward hoof in his fore-legs is longer and greater then the inward, and contrary in the hinder: and the inward clove thereof is longer and greater. Ibid., 467. A fat Sheep … whereof the inward hoofs or cloves of his fore-feet were grown to be as long as eight fingers are broad.
