a natural earthy material that is plastic when wet, consisting essentially of hydrated silicates of aluminum: used for making bricks, pottery, etc.
earth; mud.
earth, especially regarded as the material from which the human body was formed.
the human body, especially as distinguished from the spirit or soul; the flesh.
human character as estimated according to fineness of constitution, endowments, etc..
The saints and heroes seem of a different clay from most of us.
to treat or mix with clay; cover, daub, or fill with clay.
to filter through clay.
Bertha M. Charlotte Monica Braeme, 1836–84, English author: originator of a long series of romantic novels.
Cassius Marcellus, 1810–1903, U.S. antislavery leader and diplomat.
Cassius Marcellus, Jr., original name of Muhammad Ali.
Henry, 1777–1852, U.S. statesman and orator.
Lucius (DuBignon) 1897–1978, U.S. general.
a male given name.
Cassius See Muhammad Ali
Henry. 1777–1852, US statesman and orator; secretary of state (1825–29)
a very fine-grained material that consists of hydrated aluminium silicate, quartz, and organic fragments and occurs as sedimentary rocks, soils, and other deposits. It becomes plastic when moist but hardens on heating and is used in the manufacture of bricks, cement, ceramics, etc
earth or mud in general
poetic the material of the human body
First recorded before 1000; Middle English clei, cleigh, Old English clǣg, cognate with Dutch klei, German Klei, akin to glue
Clay is a type of soil or dirt that's made of very small particles. You can mold clay into different shapes when it's wet. Clay is terrible for planting a vegetable garden, but it's perfect for making pottery, tiles, or bricks. You can shape damp clay into a bowl or a cup, and when it's dried and fired in a very hot oven, it becomes extremely hard and sturdy. The Old English root of clay is clæg, "stiff, sticky earth."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
CLAY: Fifty-two years ago, I walked into my college paper’s newsroom looking to do a story.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2022
CLAY: As another Valentine’s Day beckons, what pops into my mind is a cross-stitch piece that my wife, Meg, and I put together for a relative’s wedding decades ago.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2022
CLAY: Back in the 1980s, after Meg and I looked at and rejected an apartment to rent, she insisted its living-room carpet was green, while I firmly remembered it as brown.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2022
CLAY: I’ve long pondered a photo of my parents and me in Tijuana near the end of 1953, when I was 2½.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 1, 2021
He's a horse, every inch of him, stock, lock, and barrel, is OLD CLAY.
From The Clockmaker — or, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville by Haliburton, Thomas Chandler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
