clew
part of speech
noun (a clew, clews); verb (clew, clews, clewed, clewing)
meaning for a pupil
1) (sailing) The lower back corner of a sail, where a rope is attached. tree →
2) (old-fashioned) A ball of thread or yarn. tree →
3) (old spelling) An old way of writing «clue». tree →
4) (verb, sailing) «Clew up» means to pull up a sail by its corners. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories from Greek myth, Theseus used a clew (ball of thread) to find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth, and that is how «clue» got its meaning: something that leads you to an answer. In sailing lessons, the clew is one of the three corners of a triangle sail (head, tack, clew).
examples
- The sailor tied the rope to the clew of the sail. tree →
- Ariadne gave Theseus a clew of thread to find his way out. tree →
- The word «clue» comes from «clew», a ball of thread. tree →
- Pull the clew tight to trim the sail. tree →
- The three corners of a sail are the head, the tack and the clew. tree →
- The old book spelled «clue» as «clew». tree →
- You need only hold the end of the thread, and the clew will run on before and show you the way. tree →
note
Sounds exactly like «clue» (homophone). Today «clew» is only used in sailing or old stories; for detective hints, write «clue».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «clew» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.