clove

plural cloves

1. countableuncountableA very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
2. countableA clove tree, of the species Syzygium aromaticum (syn. Caryophyllus aromaticus), native to the Moluccas (Indonesian islands), which produces the spice.
3. countableAn old English measure of weight, containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), i.e. half a stone.

   By a statute of 9 Hen. VI. it was ordained that the wey of cheese should contain 32 cloves of 7 lbs. each, i.e. 224 lbs., or 2 cwts.

   1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 169

   1 more example

   Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6+¹⁄₂ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. The 'Pathway' points out the etymology of the word cloves; it calls them ' claves or nails.' It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.

   1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume 27, page 202

plural cloves

1. agricultureOne of the small bulbs that make up the large, compound bulb in garlic, shallots, or similar plants.

   clove of garlic, garlic clove, clove of a sea-onion, clove of shallot, cloves of bulbs

2. archaicA segment or natural division of a fruit.

   [W]e hurried by […] past the meatfaced woman, a butcher's dame, nuzzling thirstily her clove of orange.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 2: Nestor]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 32

1. pastsimple past of cleave

plural cloves

1. NortheasternUSgeographyA narrow valley with steep sides.