Clew
[kluː] or [klʊ]
Definition
(n.) Alt. of Clue
(n.) To direct; to guide, as by a thread.
(n.) To move of draw (a sail or yard) by means of the clew garnets, clew lines, etc.; esp. to draw up the clews of a square sail to the yard.
Checked by Lanny
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Guide, direction, CLAVIS, clue.
Typed by Cecil
Definition
n. a ball of thread or the thread in it: a thread that guides through a labyrinth: anything that solves a mystery: the corner of a sail.—v.t. to coil up into a clew or ball: to truss or tie up sails to the yards.—n. Clew′-gar′net (naut.) a tackle for clewing up the smaller square sails for furling.—n.pl. Clew′-lines ropes on the smaller square sails by which they are clewed up for furling.
Inputed by Ferdinand
Examples
- The extreme form of this subordination, namely drudgery, offers a clew. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- What was Mr. Casaubon's bias his acts will give us a clew to. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- A clew may be found in the fact that the horse does not really share in the social use to which his action is put. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- But you called him in to attend on Fred, and I am sure that was a mercy, said Mrs. Bulstrode, losing her clew in the intricacies of the subject. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Tantripp would never have found the clew to this mystery. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- After feeling around for some days I got a clew how to do it. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- I mention this in this place, of a fixed purpose, because it is the clew by which I am to be followed into my poor labyrinth. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- He is not an inventor as much as he is a detective; he picks up the clews to certain happenings and constructs a working theory to fit them. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Mr. Brooke, meanwhile, having lost other clews, fell back on himself and his qualifications--always an appropriate graceful subject for a candidate. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Inputed by Elvira