• IPA: /kluː/
• (obsolete) IPA: /kljuː/

clew (plural clews)

1. (obsolete) A roughly spherical mass or body.
   • c. 1600, Charles Estienne and Jean Liebault, tr. Richard Surflet, Maison Rustique, or, The Countrie Farme:

     If the whole troupe be diuided into many clewes, or round bunches, you need not then doubt but that there are many kings.

   • 1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter VII, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume I, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], OCLC 13966308 ↗, page 153 ↗:

     Both theſe creatures [the "ai" (aye-aye#English|aye-aye?) and "unan"], by forming themſelves in a clew, have often more the appearance of excreſcences in the bark, than that of animals.

2. (archaic) A ball of thread or yarn.
   • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii], page 234 ↗, column 1:

     [O]nely ſinne / And helliſh obſtinacie tye thy tongue / That truth ſhould be ſuſpected, ſpeake, iſ't ſo? / If it be ſo, you haue wound a goodly clewe: / If it be not, forſweare't how ere I charge thee, / As heauen ſhall work in me for thine auaile / To tell me truelie.

   • 1831, Victor Hugo, tr. Isabel Florence Hapgood, The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

     A rare, precious, and never interrupted race of philosophers to whom wisdom, like another Ariadne, seems to have given a clew of thread which they have been walking along unwinding since the beginning of the world, through the labyrinth of human affairs.

   • 1889, Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book, "The story of Prince Ahmed and the fairy Paribanou":

     The Fairy Paribanou was at that time very hard at work, and, as she had several clews of thread by her, she took up one, and, presenting it to Prince Ahmed, said: "First take this clew of thread...

3. Yarn or thread as used to guide one's way through a maze or labyrinth; a guide, a clue.
   • [1542, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “termen”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: Printed by [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], OCLC 932884868 ↗, folio ccxxvi, verso ↗, column 1:

     Therto haue I a remedye in my thought / That by a clewe of twyne, as he hath gone / The ſame way he may returne anone / Folowyng alwey yͤ threde as he hath come.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)]

4. (nautical) The lower corner(s) of a sail to which a sheet is attached for trimming the sail (adjusting its position relative to the wind); the metal loop or cringle in the corner of the sail, to which the sheet is attached. (on a triangular sail) The trailing corner relative to the wind direction.
   • 1858, The Atlantic Monthly, "The Language of the Sea":

     "Clew" is Saxon; "garnet" (from granato, a fruit) is Italian,—that is, the garnet- or pomegranate-shaped block fastened to the clew or corner of the courses, and hence the rope running through the block.

5. (in the plural) The sheets so attached to a sail.
   • 1913, John Masefield, Dauber

     The canvas running up in a proud sweep,
     Wind-wrinkled at the clews, and white like lint,

6. (nautical, in the plural) The cords suspending a hammock.
   • 2000, Ralph W Danklefsen, The Navy I Remember, Xlibris 2000, p. 21:

     He taught us how to attach the clews to the ends of the hammock and then lash it between jack stays.

7. Obsolete spelling of clue#English|clue
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Volume III, 1856, Harper & Brothers, New York, page 13 ↗,

     The clew, without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of Continental politics, was in his hands.

   • 1910, "Duck Eats Yeast," The Yakima Herald:

     Telltale marks around the pan of yeast gave him a clew to the trouble.

   • 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., OCLC 17392886 ↗; republished as “A Fight that Won Friends”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917, OCLC 419578288 ↗, page 59 ↗:

     They had followed immediately behind him, thinking it barely possible that his actions might prove a clew to my whereabouts, and had witnessed my short but decisive battle with him.

   • 1926, Robertus Love, The Rise and Fall of Jesse James, University of Nebraska, 1990:

     Not often did Jesse James leave a clew to his identity when he galloped away from a crime of violence, back into the mysterious Nowhere whence he came.

   • 1954, Robert Heinlein, The Star Beast, New English Library:

     following the single clew that she must have gone off with a certain group of visitors from space; they knew what those visitors looked like but not from what part of the sky they came.

• Russian: клубо́к

• Italian: bugna
• Russian: шко́товый у́гол парус

clew (clews, present participle clewing; past and past participle clewed)

1. (transitive) to roll into a ball
2. (nautical) (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail)