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To direct; to guide, as by a thread. [Obs.] Direct and clew me out the way to happiness. Beau. && Fl.

A ball of thread, yarn, or cord; also, The thread itself. Untwisting his deceitful clew. Spenser.

To unwind, unfold, or untie; hence, to undo; to ruin. Shak.

k bolted perpendicularly on the side of a vessel, to aid in drawing down and securing the clew of the mainsail.

Naut.), an iron two-part hook, with jaws overlapping, used in bending chain sheets to the clews of sails; -- called also clip hook. Knight.

A ball of thread; a thread or other means of guidance. Same as Clew. You have wound a goodly clue. Shak. This clue once found unravels all the rest. Pope. Serve as clues to guide us into further knowledge. Locke.

A tackle for hoisting cargo in our out. Clew garnet. See under Clew.

One of the clews or lower corners of a course or a topsail when the middle part or the rest of the sail is furled.

winging couch or bed, usually made of netting or canvas about six feet wide, suspended by clews or cords at the ends.

ncapable of being deciphered. Holocryptic cipher, a cipher so constructed as to afford no clew to its meaning to one ignorant of the key.

a block fitted under the quarters of a yard on each side of the slings, through which the clew lines and sheets are reeved. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Quarter boat (Naut.), a boat hung at a vessel's quarter. -- Quarter cloths (Naut.), long pieces of painted canvas, used to cover the quarter netting. -- Quarter day, a day re…

in bracing the yards, making and shortening sail, etc., such as braces, sheets, halyards, clew lines, and the like. -- Standing rigging (Naut.), the shrouds and stays.

R. Drake. To sheet home (Naut.), to haul upon a sheet until the sail is as flat, and the clew as near the wind, as possible.