clove

¹

[ klohv ]

noun

1. the dried flower bud of a tropical tree, Syzygium aromaticum, of the myrtle family, used whole or ground as a spice.
2. the tree itself.

clove

²

[ klohv ]

noun

, Botany.

1. one of the small bulbs formed in the axils of the scales of a mother bulb, as in garlic.

clove

³

[ klohv ]

verb

1. a simple past tense of cleave ².

clove

⁴

[ klohv ]

noun

1. a British unit of weight for wool, cheese, etc., usually equivalent to 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms).

clove

¹

/ kləʊv /

verb

1. a past tense of cleave 1

clove

²

/ kləʊv /

noun

1. a tropical evergreen myrtaceous tree, Syzygium aromaticum , native to the East Indies but cultivated elsewhere, esp Zanzibar
2. the dried unopened flower buds of this tree, used as a pungent fragrant spice

clove

³

/ kləʊv /

noun

1. any of the segments of a compound bulb that arise from the axils of the scales of a large bulb

Word History and Origins

Origin of clove¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English clow(e), clo(ve), clawe (short for clow-gilofre from Old French clo, clou, clau (de gilofre, girofle), literally “nail of the gillyflower”; clou, gillyflower

Origin of clove²

First recorded before 1000; Middle English clove, clof, clowe, Old English clufe (plural) “ears of grain, cloves of garlic”; (cognate with Middle Dutch clōve, Dutch kloof ); akin to cleave ²

Origin of clove³

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English claue, clou from Anglo-French clove, earlier clou, equivalent to Anglo-Latin clāvus “nail” (also used as a unit of linear measure), from Latin clāvus; clove ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of clove¹

C14: from Old French clou de girofle, literally: nail of clove, clou from Latin clāvus nail + girofle clove tree

Origin of clove²

Old English clufu bulb; related to Old High German klovolouh garlic; see cleave ¹

Example Sentences

They were mixed with the go-to expensive spices of the day: cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, ginger and sugar.

From Salon

Timothy Sharp, manager of Sparrow Coffee House in Cardiff, makes his own homemade syrup, adding spices like cloves, cardamom and star anise to the core PSL ingredients of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.

From BBC

They have all of the natural dried-out herbs like lavender and cloves.

From Los Angeles Times

“A pinch of clove meant, You wouldn’t like the taste of Monkey. His insides are too bitter with religious contempt—what?!”

From Literature

Garlic can be grown from grocery store bulbs by breaking apart the individual cloves within the bulb and planting them with the pointed side up and the wider root side down.

From Los Angeles Times

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