clavel Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈklævəl)
Forms: 7 clavie, 7, 9 clavy, 9 clavey, 7– clavel.
[a. OF. clavel, now claveau, keystone of an arch, wedge-shaped lintel of a window, door, or the like; = Pr. clavel, Cat. clavell, It. chiavello:—L. *clāvellus dim. of clāvus nail, peg, clinching instrument.]
1. The lintel over a fire-place; esp. a beam of wood so used, the mantel.
| 1602 Carew Cornwall (1723) 138 a, The hewed stones of the windowes, dowres, and clavels, pluct out to serve private buildings. 1611 Coryat Crudities 303 The fairest chimney for clauy and jeames that euer I saw. 1753 Borlase in Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 91 The lightning had left a mark quite cross the clavel of the kitchen-chimney. 1847–78 Halliwell, Clavel, a mantel-piece. West. Called also..clavy. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., Would you like to have a arch a-turned or a clavel? Ibid. The Holmen Clavel Inn. |
2. Comb., as clavel (clavy-) -board, -piece, -tack, = mantelpiece.
| 1634 J. Winter Let. 18 June in J. P. Baxter Trelawny Papers (1884) 31 The Chimnay..is so large that we Can place our Chittle [sc. kettle] within the Clavell pece. 1847–78 Halliwell, Clavel..called also..clavy-piece. Clavel-tack is, I believe, the shelf over the mantel-piece. 1862 Barnes Rhymes in Dorset Dial. I. 136 Just above the clavy-bwoard Wer father's spurs, an' gun, an' sword. |