clod

noun

lump of dirt

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /klɒd/ / /klɑd/

noun

Etymology: From Middle English clod, a late by-form of clot, from Old English clot, from Proto-West Germanic *klott (“mass, ball, clump”). Compare clot and cloud; cognate to kloot (“clod”). Alternatively, Middle English clod may derive from Old English *clod (found in Old English clodhamer (“a kind of thrush”) and Clodhangra (a placename)), from Proto-West Germanic *kloddō (“lump, clod”), from *gel- (“to ball up, become lumpy”), related to West Frisian klodde (“clod, lump”), Dutch klodde (“lump, blob”).

A lump of something, especially earth or clay.
“clods of iron and brass”
“1600, Edward Fairfax (translator), originally published in 1581 by Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered clods of blood”
The ground; the earth; a spot of earth or turf.
“the clod where once their sultan's horse hath trod”
A stupid person, a dolt, a clodpate, a clodhopper.
“The vulgar, a scarce animated clod”
“'What was its number?' 'I don't know, sir.' 'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest, and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'”
Part of a shoulder of beef, or of the neck piece near the shoulder.

verb

To pelt with clods.
“"When I went there yesterday evening in the gloaming it had crept down and was trying to catch the little speckled fishes that play in the pool, and I had to clod it to make it go up the tree again and let them alone."”
“when I came out and started to hoist it to the mule's back they rushed at me and jerked my suspenders down and then they clodded me with chunks of dirt”
To throw violently; to hurl.
“"So, sir, she grippit him, and clodded him like a stane from the sling ower the craigs of Warroch-head"”
To collect into clods, or into a thick mass; to coagulate; to clot.
“Clodded in lumps of clay.”