Clove

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊv

An alteration of Middle English clowe, from the first component of Old French clou de girofle, from Latin clāvus ("nail") for its shape. Also see clāva ("knotty branch, club")

Full definition of clove

Noun

1. A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
2. (botany) The tree (syn. ), native to the Moluccas (Indonesian islands) which produces the spice.
3. An old English measure of weight, containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), i.e. half a stone.
• 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge p. 202.Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod 6 1/2 tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. The 'Pathway' points out the etymology of the word cloves; it calls them ' claves or nails.' It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
• 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 1, p. 169:By a statute of 9 Hen. VI. it was ordained that the wey of cheese should contain 32 cloves of 7 lbs. each, i.e. 224 lbs., or 2 cwts.

Derived terms

• clove camphor
• clove gillyflower
• clove pink

From Middle English, from Old English clufu, cognate with cleofan ("to split"), hence with the verbal etymology hereafter

Noun

1. Any one of the separate bulbs that make up the larger bulb of garlic

Verb

1. clove

   (simple past of cleave)

Related terms

• cloven

From Dutch kloof

Noun

1. A narrow valley with steep sides, used in areas of North America first settled by the Dutch

Usage notes

Mainly used in proper names, such as Kaaterskill Clove.