clay

plural clays

1. uncountableusuallyA 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 color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]

   1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377, column 2

2. uncountableusuallyAn earth material with ductile qualities.
3. uncountableusuallyhobbiesA tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.

   The French Open is played on clay.

4. uncountableusuallybiblicalThe material of the human body.

   From clay we are made.

   2 more examples

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

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 10:8-9

   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.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 64:8

   Antonyms: soul, spirit

5. uncountableusuallygeographyA particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
6. uncountableusuallyA clay pipe for smoking tobacco.
7. informaluncountableusuallyengineeringA clay pigeon.

   We went shooting clays at the weekend.

8. InternethumorousuncountableusuallyLand or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims.

   Vilnius is rightful Polish clay.

   Synonyms: soil

9. uncountableusuallyA moth (Mythimna ferrago).

present singular third person clays · participle present claying · participle past clayed · past clayed

1. transitiveTo add clay to, to spread clay onto.
2. transitiveTo purify using clay.

   The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.

   1985, Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835, page 200

   1 more example

   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.

plural Clays

1. countableuncountableA surname originating as an occupation.
2. countableuncountableA male given name transferred from the surname.

   When he was about five years old some kids asked Clay why his mother had called him that. And he did not know. But began to wonder.

   1968, Patrick White, “Clay”, in The Burnt Ones, Penguin Books, page 114

   1 more example

   The lone "nay" came from the Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, Clay Higgins, who defied his party saying his vote was a principled "NO".

   2025 November 18, Brandon Drenon, “The only 'no' vote on releasing Epstein files”, in BBC

3. countableuncountableA diminutive of the male given name Clayton.
4. A number of places in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA city in Jefferson County, Alabama.
   2. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Sacramento County, California.
   3. countableuncountableA home rule city in Webster County, Kentucky, named after Henry Clay.
   4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Adair County, Missouri.
   5. countableuncountableA town in Onondaga County, New York, named after Henry Clay.
   6. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Franklin Township, Jackson County, Ohio.
   7. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Burleson County, Texas.
   8. countableuncountableA town, the county seat of Clay County, West Virginia.
   9. countableuncountableA ghost town in the town of Komensky, Jackson County, Wisconsin.
   10. countableuncountableA number of townships in the United States, listed under Clay Township.
5. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableEllipsis of Clay County.