▪ I. clog, n.
(klɒg)
Also 5–7 clogge, (5 cloge), 7 clogg.
[Known since 14th c.; derivation obscure.
(Connexion with clag ‘to clot with any thing sticky’ appears only in later transferred uses.)]
1. A thick piece of wood; a short piece of the trunk, or of a large root, of a tree; a block, clump. Still the ordinary sense in Scotland. yule clog: a Christmas log for the fire.
| c 1400 Sowdone Bab. 2919 With a Clog of an Oke he faught. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 83 Clogge, truncus. 1530 Palsgr. 206/1 Clogge, billot. 1570 Levins Manip. 157 A clog, log, truncus. a 1825 Descr. Scotland (Jam.), Great clogges of timber. a 1845 A. E. Bray Warleigh xvi. (1884) 128 Well roasted by the ‘yule clog’ of a winter's fire. 1886 Stewart Remin. Dumfermline 61 The roots of large trees called ‘clogs’ were now brought. |
2. A block or heavy piece of wood, or the like, attached to the leg or neck of a man or beast, to impede motion or prevent escape.
| 1450 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 232 Jac Napes wolde one the see a maryner to ben, With his cloge and his cheyn. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye in Babees Bk. (1868) 302 Þou art lyke an ape teyȝed with a clogge. 1461 Past. Lett. No. 414. II. 48, I am with the gayler, with a clogge upon myn hele. 1570 Levins Manip. 157 A clogge at ye foote, impedimentum. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado i. iii. 35, I am trusted with a mussell, and enfranchisde with a clog. 1629 J. Cole Of Death 45 The body is but to the soule as a clogge tied to the legge. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 323 Clogs, pieces of Wood, or such like, fastned about the Necks, or to the Legs of Beasts, that they run not away. 1830 Lamb in Blackw. Mag. XXVII. 101, I never tied tin-kettle, clog, Or salt-box to the tail of dog, Without a pang. |
b. A load to obstruct the motion of anything.
| 1669 Boyle Contn. New Exp. i. (1682) 23 We perceived the Bladder to swell and concluded that it had lifted up its clog about an inch. Ibid. 112 The Clog, when all the Air was come in, was swiftly raised. |
c. A block or lump tied to anything for use or ornament;
e.g. to a key to prevent its being lost.
| c 1325 Pol. Songs (1839) 154 For the clogges that cleveth by here chelle. c 1400 Sowdone Bab. 1603 With the Keye cloge, þat she caught. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 164 Euery key hath a clog. |
3. fig. Anything that impedes action or progress; an impediment, encumbrance, hindrance.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 28 As burthens or clogges retaryenge or lettynge them in theyr iourney. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 227 A grieuous clog to her husband. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. 615 That Kings were Useless, and a Clog to Trade. 1727 Swift Gulliver iii. viii. 231 A perpetual clog to public business. 1814 Southey Roderick iv, Like a spirit which hath shaken off The clog of dull mortality. 1885 Manch. Exam. 6 Apr. 4/7 Women and children are a clog upon rapid movements. |
† 4. The ‘cone’ of the fir or pine tree.
Obs.| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 104 The Pine tree..the kernelles must be gathered in June, before the clogges do open. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 324 Coniferous Trees, are such that bear Cones or Clogs. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Fir tree, The Kernels and Nuts, which may be got out of their Cones and Clogs. |
† 5. A tuber at the root of a plant.
Obs.| 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. lxvi. §i. 91 The roote consisteth of many knobs or tuberous clogs. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden 68 The roots (of orpine) are divers thick, round, white, tuberous Clogs. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 115/1 Clogs, or knotty roots..hanging together by threds. |
6. a. A wooden-soled overshoe or sandal worn (chiefly by women) in some localities, to protect the feet from wet and dirt.
b. A shoe with a thick wooden sole protected by a rim of metal, worn in the
north. [Probably the name belongs originally to the thick wooden sole alone:
cf. clog v. 9.]
| 1416 Act 4 Hen. V, c. 3 §1 Qe les Patynmakers..ne facent ascuns patyns ne clogges del maeresme appelle Aspe. 1671 tr. Palafox's Conq. China xxxii. 582 Chopino's are high Cloggs, which the Women use in Spain. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 14/2 Cloggs are shooes with thick Wooden Soles. 1742 H. Walpole Corr. (ed. 3) I. xxxvi. 146, I remember at the playhouse, they used to call on Mrs. Oldfield's chair! Mrs. Barry's clogs! and Mrs. Bracegirdle's pattens! 1798 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. ii, A fear on Mrs. Allen's part of having left her clogs at an inn. 1820 Ann. Reg. 312 (Manchester Sessions) They kicked me with their clogs. 1843 Thackeray Men's Wives (1872) 478 He leaves his clogs in the passage..in the muddiest weather he never has a speck on his foot. 1850 E. Elliott More Verse & Pr. I. 67 To clomp in my clogs there, I is not inclin'd. 1877 N.W. Lincolnsh. Gloss., Clog (4) A wooden-soled over-shoe worn by women. 1883 Almondbury & Huddersfield Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clogs, shoes with wooden soles..they are particularly useful in the factories where dyeing is going on. |
† 7. A kind of calendar notched upon a square block of wood (or other material).
Obs.| 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 418 An ancient sort of Almanacks they call Cloggs, made upon square sticks, still in use here amongst the meaner sort of people. a 1765 Stukeley Itin. VI. 131 St. Martin's day, in the Norway clogs, is marked with a goose. 1834–43 Southey Doctor xc. 202 In Peter Hopkins's time the clogg was still found in farm houses. |
8. Comb., as
clog-like adj. and
adv.,
clog-maker,
clog-wearing ppl. a.;
clog-almanac,
= clog 7;
clog-boot, a wooden-soled boot;
clog-dance, a dance performed in clogs or wooden-soled shoes; hence
clog-dancer;
† clog-head, ? a blockhead;
clog-hornpipe (
cf. clog-dance);
clog-weed (see
quot.);
clog-wheat, a bearded variety of wheat; also called, from the conical form of its spike, cone-wheat;
† clog-wheel, a cart-wheel in one block (see
quot.).
| 1681 Lond. Gaz. No. 1592/4 A short pair of *Clog-Boots. |
| 1881 Daily Tel. 27 Dec., A grand international *clog-dance. |
| 1598 Famous Victories Hen. V, x. 25 Come ye *cloghead. |
| 1861 Mrs. Norton Lady La G. iv. 197 The slandered..Who hears for evermore the self-same lie Clank *clog-like at his heels. |
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6170/8 John Willson..*Clog-maker. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 251 Purchased by the clog-makers and turners. |
| 1850 E. Elliott More Verse and Pr. I. 67 *Clog-wearing Madge. |
| 1878–86 Britten & H. Eng. Plant-n., *Clog-weed, (1) Heracleum Sphondylium, Glou. (2) Scabiosa arvensis, S. Bucks. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 165 A deep, broad ditch, overshadowed by tall hemlock and clogweed. |
| 1762 Bones in Phil. Trans. LII. 530 *Clog-wheat, or rivets, or bearded-wheat, (as it is variously called in this county [Suffolk]). 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric., Gloss., Clog-wheat, cone-wheat. |
| 1575 Richmond. Wills (1853) 254, Ij paire *clogg wheeles for oxen. 1878 Cumbrld. Gloss., Clog wheels, cart wheels of thick plank and without spokes. In common use in the 18th century. |
▪ II. clog, v. (
klɒg)
[f. the n. In some later senses there is perh. association with clag v., although in dialects in which both words are used, e.g. in south of Scotland, they are kept quite distinct, clag always implying stickiness, and clog load. Senses 5–6 appear to run together with those of cloy v.] 1. trans. To fasten a clog or heavy block of wood to; to fetter or confine by this means.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xiv. (1495) 774 An oxe herde fedeth..oxen: and byndeth their fete..and cloggith them whyle they ben in pasture. 1587 Fleming Cont. Holinshed III. 392/2 His master..manie times caused him to be chained, locked, and clogged, to staie his running awaie. 1658 Ussher Ann. v. 91 Being clogged with chaines of steel, he was carried away..to Babylon. a 1822 Shelley Ess. & Lett., Reviv. Lit. (Camelot Ser.) 147 Superstition..has..clogged man to earth. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xx. 514 Horses..clogged with a bar of wood. |
2. transf. To load so as to entangle or impede the motion of; to encumber, hamper.
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. 101 With their fingers clogged with rings. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xii. (1622) 338 Hence 'tis, the Delver bound and clogd in clowted buskin, sings. 1725 Pope Odyss. v. 410 Clogg'd by the cumbrous vest Calypso gave. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1877) II. xv. 300 The whole flotilla would be clogged by the slowness of the sailing-vessels. |
† b. To load.
Obs. (Johnson says ‘In the following passage it is improper, for its meaning always includes hindrance’.)
| 1691 Ray Creation ii. (R.) Though the teeth of the wheels..be never so smooth..yet if they be not oyl'd will hardly move, though you clog them with never so much weight. |
3. fig. To load, burden, encumber, hamper.
| 1564 Becon New Catech. (1844) 300 In things that be indifferent, we must..clog no man's conscience. 1618 E. Elton Exp. Romans vii. (1622) 115 Clogged with the yoke and burden of their sinnes. 1647 Cowley Mistress, Soul (1669) 42 Clogging it [an Estate] with Legacies. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. I. i. iv. 23 The power of exchanging must have been much clogged. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. II. ii. v. 228 To avoid..the combinations of consonants that clog our language. 1857 C. Brontë Professor II. xxiii. 175 Man is ever clogged with his mortality. |
b. fig. To hinder, impede, obstruct (actions).
| 1715 South Serm. 1 Kings xiii. 33. 128 The Devotion of Men is apt to be clogged by such Ceremonies. 1742 Col. Rec. Penn. IV. 542 Everything that tendered to Clog the Importation of them. 1775 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 55 A minority cannot make or carry on a war; but a minority..may clog a war. 1876 Green Short Hist. viii. 7. 539 The old loyalty, too, clogged their enterprise. |
4. To encumber or impede as clay or other sticky matter by adhesion.
Cf. to
clag.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 294 Clogged in the claye and slyme of vyce. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. ii. 66 If..you finde so much blood in his Liuer, as will clog the foote of a flea. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §222 (1810) 232 Clawton..a place full of clay..insomuch that a proverbial speech passeth thereon: ‘The Devil was clogged in Clawmore’. 1886 G. Allen Kalee's Shrine xiii. 144 Sinking in mud..It clogs you and hampers you on every side. |
5. To fill up with anything that impedes or obstructs action or function, to encumber;
esp. to choke
up so as to hinder free passage, to obstruct.
(In the first
quot.,
prob. an error for
cloy.)
| 1586 Hatton in Campbell Chancellors (1857) II. xlv. 276 They had conspired to..clog all the great ordnance. 1670–98 R. Lassels Voy. Italy II. 141 A world of these statues..in every room in the house, which they clog rather than adorn. 1696 Whiston Th. Earth (1722) 19 Air..Clogg'd with gross Vapours. 1795 Southey Joan Arc i. 454 Famine.. Mark'd the gorged raven clog his beak with gore. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 646 Until it so clogs the type, that the work is..scarcely legible. 1844 Dufton Deafness 77 When the Eustachian tube is clogged up with mucus. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby i. 46 The road..was clogged with carriages. |
† 6. fig. To satiate, surfeit, cloy.
Obs.| 1590 Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) 65 Thus clogg'd with loue, with passions and with griefe. 1610 Healey Vives' Comm. St. Aug. Citie of God (1620) 551, I do but glance at this for fear of clogging my reader. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. Woman Wks. 1730 I. 57 Clogg'd with incest and adultery To lusts more strange..they fly. |
7. intr. (for
refl.) To become encumbered or obstructed, to stick.
lit. and
fig.| 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Praise iii, When thou dost on businesse blow, It hangs, it clogs. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 214 Move it sometimes with a Broom or Whisk, that the seeds clog not together. a 1755 Sharp Surgery (J.), The teeth of the saw will begin to clog. |
8. trans. To put clogs on. [
f. the
n., sense 6.]
| 1837 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 497 It is time for me to..clog and coat myself, and sally forth to face the storm. |
9. To put wooden soles on (shoes, etc.).
Common in north of England and south of Scotland:
e.g. ‘Take the shoes to the clogger who will clog them for the winter.’
10. intr. and trans. To perform (a clog-dance).
| 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby vii. 139 ‘I don't care!’ cried Daisy, and began to clog on the brick fireplace. 1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse II. v. xxix. 413 Some of the men started to clog on the deck till Mrs. Jorham snorted. 1946 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets (1949) iv. 97 Three little Negro girls..were singing while they skipped and clogged a simple dance. |