different between clew vs plew

English

Etymology

Middle English clewe, from Old English cleowen, cliewen, cliwen (“sphere, ball, skein; ball of thread or yarn; mass, group”), from Proto-Germanic *kliuwin?, *klewô (“ball, bale”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to conglomerate, gather into a mass; clump, ball, bale”). Akin to Old English cl?? (“clay”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klu?/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /klju?/

  Rhymes: -u?

  Homophone: clue

Noun

clew (plural clews)

1. (obsolete) A roughly spherical mass or body.
   • c. 1600, Charles Estienne and Jean Liebault, tr. Richard Surflet, Maison Rustique, or, The Countrie Farme:

     If the whole troupe be diuided into many clewes, or round bunches, you need not then doubt but that there are many kings.
3. (archaic) A ball of thread or yarn.
   • 1831, Victor Hugo, tr. Isabel Florence Hapgood, The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

     A rare, precious, and never interrupted race of philosophers to whom wisdom, like another Ariadne, seems to have given a clew of thread which they have been walking along unwinding since the beginning of the world, through the labyrinth of human affairs.

   • 1889, Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book, "The story of Prince Ahmed and the fairy Paribanou":

     The Fairy Paribanou was at that time very hard at work, and, as she had several clews of thread by her, she took up one, and, presenting it to Prince Ahmed, said: "First take this clew of thread...
4. Yarn or thread as used to guide one's way through a maze or labyrinth; a guide, a clue.
5. (nautical) The lower corner(s) of a sail to which a sheet is attached for trimming the sail (adjusting its position relative to the wind); the metal loop or cringle in the corner of the sail, to which the sheet is attached. (on a triangular sail) The trailing corner relative to the wind direction.
   • 1858, The Atlantic Monthly, "The Language of the Sea":

     "Clew" is Saxon; "garnet" (from granato, a fruit) is Italian,—that is, the garnet- or pomegranate-shaped block fastened to the clew or corner of the courses, and hence the rope running through the block.
6. (in the plural) The sheets so attached to a sail.
   • 1913, John Masefield, Dauber

     The canvas running up in a proud sweep,
     Wind-wrinkled at the clews, and white like lint,

7. (nautical, in the plural) The cords suspending a hammock.
   • 2000, Ralph W Danklefsen, The Navy I Remember, Xlibris 2000, p. 21:

     He taught us how to attach the clews to the ends of the hammock and then lash it between jack stays.

8. Obsolete spelling of clue
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II, Volume III, 1856, Harper & Brothers, New York, page 13,

     The clew, without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of Continental politics, was in his hands.

   • 1910, "Duck Eats Yeast," The Yakima Herald:

     Telltale marks around the pan of yeast gave him a clew to the trouble.

   • 1926, Robertus Love, The Rise and Fall of Jesse James, University of Nebraska, 1990:

     Not often did Jesse James leave a clew to his identity when he galloped away from a crime of violence, back into the mysterious Nowhere whence he came.

   • 1954, Robert Heinlein, The Star Beast, New English Library:

     following the single clew that she must have gone off with a certain group of visitors from space; they knew what those visitors looked like but not from what part of the sky they came.

Coordinate terms

• (lower corner of a sail): bunt

Derived terms

• (lower corner of a sail ; metal loop or cringle in the corner of the sail): clewline

Translations

Verb

clew (third-person singular simple present clews, present participle clewing, simple past and past participle clewed)

1. (transitive) to roll into a ball
2. (nautical) (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail)

See also

• clew-garnet
• clef
• clue

References

Middle English

Noun

clew

1. Alternative form of clewe

English

Etymology

From Canadian French, from French poilu (“hairy”). Doublet of poilu.

Noun

plew (plural plews)

1. (Canada, US) beaver pelt
   • 1967, John Arkas Hawgood, America's Western Frontiers: The Exploration and Settlement, page 96

     The cured "plew" of the adult beaver weighed about a pound and a half and at best would fetch from four to six dollars a pound at the mountain rendezvous

   • 2001, Armstrong Sperry, Wagons Westward: The Old Trail to Santa Fe page 7

     "The days when a good plew fetched six dollars, beaver or kitten, is over," he grumbled. "The beaver trade's rubbed out, Lank.

   • 2005, Ralph Moody, Stanley Galli, Kit Carson And The Wild Frontier, Page 46

     The price for a pint was a beaver plew or an Indian buffalo robe. Coffee and gunpowder were a plew or a robe a pound, blankets fifteen plews apiece,

Anagrams

• Welp, welp

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl?f/

Noun

plew f

1. genitive plural of plewa