clayey

or clay·ish

[ kley-ee ]

adjective

, clay·i·er, clay·i·est.

1. covered or smeared with clay.
2. like or resembling clay.
3. full of or abounding in clay.

Word History and Origins

Origin of clayey¹

before 1050; Middle English cleii, Old English clǣig; clay, -ey ¹

Example Sentences

Then in September 2022, Russia hit a dam on the Inhulets River with cruise missiles, unleashing clayey floodwaters on Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown.

From Science Magazine

In most cases, Strudley and Vahedifard said, the levees were built with poorly compacted, unengineered mixtures of sandy, clayey and organic soils, material “that was scraped up out of the riverbed and used for fill to build the levees,” Strudley said.

From Los Angeles Times

Aluminum in its raw form is contrived from bauxite, an amorphous clayey rock whose strip-mining extraction requires the removal of all native vegetation in the surrounding area, the destruction of habitat and food for local wildlife, with soil erosion and river pollution thrown in.

From Slate

The ground was black and clayey and riddled with hundreds of slate arrow points, as if from a prehistoric drive-by shooting.

From Seattle Times

The ground was black and clayey and riddled with hundreds of slate arrow points, as if from a prehistoric drive-by shooting.

From New York Times