cloverleaf

alternative clover-leaf

1. not comparableIn the form of the leaf of a clover plant; cloverleafed.

   a fancy cloverleaf motif

plural cloverleafs · plural cloverleaves · alternative clover-leaf

1. The leaf of a clover plant.

   Cloverleaves have a pealike flavor and make a nice accent among salad greens.

2. US(with plural cloverleafs or cloverleaves) Ellipsis of cloverleaf interchange.

   The off-ramp will lead you along the cloverleaf to your next on-ramp.

   1 more example

   By the time we got into Tulsa Town We had eighty-five trucks in all But there's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf And them bears was wall-to-wall.

   1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall

present singular third person cloverleafs · participle present cloverleafing · participle past cloverleafed · past cloverleafed · alternative clover-leaf

1. intransitiveTo turn by following a cloverleaf, or as if by following one.

   Hay told a military historian that Allen precipitated “the debacle” by “allowing his lead company to pursue the VC down the trail” instead of forming a perimeter and cloverleafing at the first sign of the enemy.

   2003, David Maraniss, They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967