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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. Macaulay.

A stereotype plate or any similar reproduction of ornament, or lettering, in relief. Cliché casting, a mode of obtaining an impression from a die or woodcut, or the like, by striking it suddenly upon metal which has been fused and is just becoming solid; also, the casting so obtained.

Any critical period. It is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world. Southey. Grand or Great climacteric, the sixty-third year of human life. I should hardly yield my rigid fibers to be regenerated by them; nor begin, in my grand climacteric, to squall in their new accents, or…

a clamp; a holdfast; as, to get a good clinch of an antagonist, or of a weapon; to secure anything by a clinch.

s; a disguise or pretext; an excuse; a fair pretense; a mask; a cover. No man is esteemed any ways considerable for policy who wears religion otherwise than as a cloak. South. Cloak bag, a bag in which a cloak or other clothes are carried; a portmanteau. Shak.

The act of covering with a cloak; the act of concealing anything. To take heed of their dissembings and cloakings. Strype.

A room, attached to any place of public resort, where cloaks, overcoats, etc., may be deposited for a time.

That which hinders or impedes motion; hence, an encumbrance, restraint, or impediment, of any kind. All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and institutions of England are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and opression. Burke.

Anything which clogs. Dr. H. More.

atory on one side of a court; (pl.) the series of such passages on the different sides of any court, esp. that of a monastery or a college. But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale. Milton.

lace; especially, a small field or piece of land surrounded by a wall, hedge, or fence of any kind; -- specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or abbey. Closes surrounded by the venerable abodes of deans and canons. Macaulay.

or shuts; that by which separate parts are fastened or closed. Without a seal, wafer, or any closure whatever. Pope.

The distinctive dress of any profession, especially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession. Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth Macaulay. The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to .…

ucca Isles. Clove camphor. (Chem.) See Eugenin. -- Clove gillyflower, Clove pink (Bot.), any fragrant self-colored carnation.

Any card of the suit of cards having a figure like the trefoil or clover leaf. (pl.) The suit of cards having such figure.

Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.

inguished from a drawing- room car, sleeping car, etc. It is sometimes loosely applied to any passenger car.

Serving to compel or constrain; compulsory; restrictive. Any coactive power or the civil kind. Bp. Warburton.

The thick, curdy precipitate formed by the coagulation of albuminous matter; any mass of coagulated matter, as a clot of bloot.

Any one of the spaces in the Milky Way which are very black, owing to the nearly complete absence of stars; esp., the large space near the Southern Cross sometimes called the Black Magellanic Cloud.