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Clew   Listen
noun
Clue, Clew  n.  
1.
A ball of thread, yarn, or cord; also, The thread itself. "Untwisting his deceitful clew."
2.
That which guides or directs one in anything of a doubtful or intricate nature; that which gives a hint in the solution of a mystery. "The clew, without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of countinental politics, was in his hands."
3.
(Naut.)
(a)
A lower corner of a square sail, or the after corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
(b)
A loop and thimbles at the corner of a sail.
(c)
A combination of lines or nettles by which a hammock is suspended.
Clew garnet (Naut.), one of the ropes by which the clews of the courses of square-rigged vessels are drawn up to the lower yards.
Clew line (Naut.), a rope by which a clew of one of the smaller square sails, as topsail, topgallant sail, or royal, is run up to its yard.
Clew-line block (Naut.), The block through which a clew line reeves.


verb
Clew  v. t.  (past & past part. clewed; pres. part. clewing)  
1.
To direct; to guide, as by a thread. (Obs.) "Direct and clew me out the way to happiness."
2.
(Naut.) To move of draw (a sail or yard) by means of the clew garnets, clew lines, etc.; esp. to draw up the clews of a square sail to the yard.
To clew down (Naut.), to force (a yard) down by hauling on the clew lines.
To clew up (Naut.), to draw (a sail) up to the yard, as for furling.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Clew" Quotes from Famous Books



... Langton, after a short private conversation, had summoned the landlord, in the hope of obtaining some clew to the development of the mystery. But no young lady, nor any stranger answering to the description the doctor had received from Hugh Crombie (which was indeed a false one), had been seen to pass through the village since ...
— Fanshawe • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... together, using brief, sharp, and exciting sentences. Their words were not understood, and no clew to their future purposes could be obtained. Lean Bear spoke in tones even more savage than he had used before, and the steps of the Indians were heard ...
— Hope and Have - or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians, A Story for Young People • Oliver Optic
... got into and out of is no part of my story; but one day something happened—things do happen as far back in lives as that—which gave Luclarion her clew to ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... somewhat modified, and was now accurately defined and fully developed in her mind, with a result of perfect certainty. In Lord Bacon's letters, on which she laid her finger as she spoke, she had discovered the key and clew to the whole mystery. There were definite and minute instructions how to find a will and other documents relating to the conclave of Elizabethan philosophers, which were concealed (when and by whom she did not inform me) in a hollow space in the under surface of Shakespeare's ...
— Our Old Home - A Series of English Sketches • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... be gained from Edwards at this time, and it must be confessed was most important. Pearson's guilt was fully proven, and we had a strong clew as to the identity of the third man in the robbery. It is true that he had more than a month the start of us, but we did not despair of finding him at last. In the meantime, much was to be speedily ...
— The Burglar's Fate And The Detectives • Allan Pinkerton


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