clog

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English[edit]

A pair of leather clogs painted by Vincent van Gogh

Etymology[edit]

Unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog (weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement). Perhaps of North Germanic origin; compare Old Norse klugu, klogo (knotty tree log),[1] Dutch klomp.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /klɒɡ/
  • (file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /klɑɡ/, /klɔɡ/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒɡ

Noun[edit]

clog (plural clogs)

  1. A type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.
    Dutch people rarely wear clogs these days.
    • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 15, in Shirley. A Tale. [], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., [], →OCLC:
      [] as to the poor—just look at them when they come crowding about the church doors on the occasion of a marriage or a funeral, clattering in clogs;
    • 2002, Alice Sebold, chapter 5, in The Lovely Bones[1], Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, page 92:
      She stomped up the stairs. Her clogs slammed against the pine boards of the staircase and shook the house.
  2. A blockage.
    The plumber cleared the clog from the drain.
  3. (UK, colloquial) A shoe of any type.
  4. A weight, such as a log or block of wood, attached to a person or animal to hinder motion.
  5. That which hinders or impedes motion; an encumbrance, restraint, or impediment of any kind.
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 45:
      The grand Conſpirator, Abbot of Weſtminster, / With clog of Conſcience, and ſowre Melancholly / Hath yeelded up his body to the graue;
    • 1777, Edmund Burke, A Letter from Edmund Burke: Esq; one of the representatives in Parliament for the city of Bristol, to John Farr and John Harris, Esqrs. sheriffs of that city, on the Affairs of America[3], London: J. Dodsley, page 8:
      All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and institutions of England, are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression.
    • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. [], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, [], →OCLC, pages 69–70:
      By the same rule, they must send your mamma her travelling expences, miss; she can't have the clog of a couple of grown daughters at her heels without money in her pocket.
    • 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 56, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. [], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., [], published 1866, →OCLC:
      If we were as rich as your uncle, I should feel it to be both a duty and a pleasure to keep an elegant table; but limited means are a sad clog to one’s wishes.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

clog (third-person singular simple present clogs, present participle clogging, simple past and past participle clogged)

  1. To block or slow passage through (often with 'up').
    Hair is clogging the drainpipe.
    The roads are clogged up with traffic.
  2. To encumber or load, especially with something that impedes motion; to hamper.
  3. To burden; to trammel; to embarrass; to perplex.
  4. (law) To enforce a mortgage lender right that prevents a borrower from exercising a right to redeem.
    • 1973, Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Doerr, 123 N.J. Super. 530, 544, 303 A.2d 898.
      For centuries it has been the rule that a mortgagor’s equity of redemption cannot be clogged and that he cannot, as a part of the original mortgage transaction, cut off or surrender his right to redeem. Any agreement which does so is void and unenforceable [sic] as against public policy.
  5. (intransitive) To perform a clog dance.
    • 2014, Jeff Abbott, Cut and Run:
      And in a burst of Celtic drums and fiddles, a bosomy colleen with a jaunty green hat and suit jacket riverdanced onto the stage, clogging with a surprising degree of expertise, barely restrained breasts jiggling.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Transactions of the Philological Society. (1899). United Kingdom: Society, p. 657

Anagrams[edit]

Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Irish cloc, from Old Irish cloc, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos (bell). Doublet of clóca.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

clog m (genitive singular cloig, nominative plural cloig)

  1. bell
  2. clock
  3. blowball, clock (of dandelion)
  4. blister

Declension[edit]

  • Alternative plural: cloganna (Cois Fharraige)

Derived terms[edit]

Verb[edit]

clog (present analytic clogann, future analytic clogfaidh, verbal noun clogadh, past participle clogtha)

  1. (intransitive) ring a bell
  2. (transitive) stun with noise
  3. (intransitive) blister

Conjugation[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
clog chlog gclog
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading[edit]

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Brythonic *klog, from Proto-Celtic *klukā. Cognate with Irish cloch, Scottish Gaelic clach.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

clog f (plural clogau)

  1. cliff, rockface

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
clog glog nghlog chlog
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.