Clove (ship)
WordNet

noun


(1)   Spice from dried unopened flower bud of the clove tree; used whole or ground
(2)   One of the small bulblets that can be split off of the axis of a larger garlic bulb
(3)   Moderate sized very symmetrical red-flowered evergreen widely cultivated in the tropics for its flower buds which are source of cloves
(4)   Aromatic flower bud of a clove tree; yields a spice
WiktionaryText

Etymology 1


An alteration of clowe, from the first component of clou de girofle, from clavus 'nail' for its shape; this from clavus (nail).

Noun



  1. A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
  2. The tree Eugenia aromatica syn. Caryophyllus aromatica, native of the Moluccas (Indonesian islands)which produces it
  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.

Etymology 2


From , from 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
 
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