clays

Noun

clay (usually uncountable, plural clays)

1. (usually) A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy)...
2. (usually) An earth material with ductile qualities.
3. (usually) A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
   • The French Open is played on clay.
4. (usually) The material of the human body.
   • From clay we are made.

   Antonyms:

   soul, spirit

5. (usually) A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
6. (usually) A clay pipe for smoking tobacco.

See all 24 meanings of clay