different between ground vs clay

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?nd/
• Rhymes: -a?nd

Etymology 1

From Middle English grounde, from Old English grund, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz, from Proto-Indo-European *g?r?mtu-. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian grundë (“brittle earth”).

Alternative forms

• GND (contraction used in electronics)

Noun

ground (countable and uncountable, plural grounds)

2. The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
   • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
3. (uncountable) Terrain.
4. Soil, earth.

5. (countable) The bottom of a body of water.
6. Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.
7. (chiefly in the plural) Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause.

8. Background, context, framework, surroundings.
9. (historical) The area on which a battle is fought, particularly as referring to the area occupied by one side or the other. Often, according to the eventualities, "to give ground" or "to gain ground".
10. (figuratively, by extension) Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse.
11. The plain surface upon which the figures of an artistic composition are set.

    crimson flowers on a white ground

12. (sculpture) A flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief.
13. (point lace) The net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied.

    Brussels ground

14. (etching) A gummy substance spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid from eating except where an opening is made by the needle.
15. (architecture, chiefly in the plural) One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which mouldings etc. are attached.

    Grounds are usually put up first and the plastering floated flush with them.

16. (countable) A soccer stadium.

17. (electricity, Canada and US) An electrical conductor connected to the earth, or a large conductor whose electrical potential is taken as zero (such as a steel chassis).
18. (countable, cricket) The area of grass on which a match is played (a cricket field); the entire arena in which it is played; the part of the field behind a batsman's popping crease where he can not be run out (hence to make one's ground).
19. (music) A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody.
20. (music) The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song.
    • 1592, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of Richard III, act III, scene vii, in: The Works of Shake?pear V (1726), page 149:

      Buck[ingham]   The Mayor is here at hand; pretend ?ome fear, // Be not you ?poke with, but by mighty ?uit; // And look you get a prayer-book in your hand, // And ?tand between two churchmen, good my lord, // For on that ground I’ll build a holy de?cant: // And be not ea?ily won to our reque?ts: // Play the maid’s part, ?till an?wer nay, and take it.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Moore (Encyc.) to this entry?)

21. The pit of a theatre.
    • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair

      the understanding gentlemen o' the ground here ask'd my judgment

Synonyms

• (electricity) earth (British)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• Pages starting with “ground”.

Translations

See also

• floor
• terra firma

Verb

ground (third-person singular simple present grounds, present participle grounding, simple past and past participle grounded)

1. (US) To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.

   Synonym: earth

2. (transitive) To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges.

   Synonym: gate

   If you don't clean your room, I'll have no choice but to ground you.

   Eric, you are grounded until further notice for lying to us about where you were last night!

   My kids are currently grounded from television.

3. (transitive) To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.

   Because of the bad weather, all flights were grounded.

4. To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.

   Jim was grounded in maths.

5. (baseball) To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb(regular)) and line (verb).
6. To place something on the ground.
7. (intransitive) To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed.

   The ship grounded on the bar.

8. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.

   • being rooted and grounded in love

   • So far from warranting any inference to the existence of a God, would, on the contrary, ground even an argument to his negation.

9. (fine arts) To cover with a ground, as a copper plate for etching, or as paper or other materials with a uniform tint as a preparation for ornament.
10. To improve or focus the mental or emotional state of.

    I ground myself with meditation.

Translations

Etymology 2

Inflected form of grind. See also milled.

Verb

ground

1. simple past tense and past participle of grind

Adjective

ground (not comparable)

1. Crushed, or reduced to small particles.

   Synonym: milled
2. Processed by grinding.
   • 2018, H Glimpel, HJ Lauffer, A Bremstahler, Finishing Tool, In Particular End Milling Cutter, US Patent App. 15/764,739

     An advantage of such a finishing tool is that, after the machining, the workpiece has high surface quality. The surface which is produced appears finely ground to polished by means of this procedure.

Derived terms

• ground beef
• ground pepper
• stoneground

Translations

References

• ground at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• dog run

Middle English

Alternative forms

• grund, grounde

Etymology

From Old English grund, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ru?nd/

Noun

ground

1. ground
2. Earth

Declension

Descendants

• English: ground
  • ? Fiji Hindi: garaund
  • ? Maltese: grawnd
• Scots: grund, groond, greund
• Yola: greoune

References

• “gr?und, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

English

Etymology

From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English cl?? (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to glue, paste, stick together”).

Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek ???? (glía), Latin gl?ten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Ukrainian ???? (glej, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kl?, IPA^(key): /kle?/, [kl?e?]
• Rhymes: -e?

Noun

clay (usually uncountable, plural clays)

1. A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.

   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […].

2. An earth material with ductile qualities.
3. (tennis) A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.

4. (biblical) The material of the human body.
   • 1611, Old Testament, King James Version, Job 10:8-9:

     Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.

   • 1611, Old Testament, King James Version, Isaiah 64:8:

     But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.

5. (geology) A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
6. A clay pipe for smoking tobacco.
7. (firearms, informal) A clay pigeon.

   We went shooting clays at the weekend.

8. (informal) Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims

   Danzig is rightfully German clay.

Antonyms

• (material of the human body): soul, spirit

Hyponyms

• kaolin, kaoline
• ball clay
• fire clay
• potter's clay

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• alluvium

Verb

clay (third-person singular simple present clays, present participle claying, simple past and past participle clayed)

1. (transitive) To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
2. (transitive, of sugar) To purify using clay.
   • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies,

     They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.

   • 1809, Jonathan Williams, On the Process of Claying Sugar, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 6.

References

• Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter volume 11, Number 1.[2] (etymology)
• “clay” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.
• Clay, New Webster Dictionary of English Language, 1980 edition.

Anagrams

• Lacy, acyl, lacy

Middle English

Noun

clay

1. Alternative form of cley (“clay”)