Library / English Dictionary

CLOG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: clogged    , clogging   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A dance performed while wearing shoes with wooden soles; has heavy stamping steps

Synonyms:

clog; clog dance; clog dancing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("clog" is a kind of...):

tap dance; tap dancing (a dance step tapped out audibly with the feet)

Derivation:

clog (dance a clog dance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any object that acts as a hindrance or obstruction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("clog" is a kind of...):

encumbrance; hinderance; hindrance; hitch; incumbrance; interference; preventative; preventive (any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome)

Derivation:

clog (fill to excess so that function is impaired)

clog (become or cause to become obstructed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Footwear usually with wooden soles

Synonyms:

clog; geta; patten; sabot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("clog" is a kind of...):

footgear; footwear (covering for a person's feet)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fill to excess so that function is impaired

Example:

The story was clogged with too many details

Synonyms:

clog; overload

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "clog" is one way to...):

fill; fill up; make full (make full, also in a metaphorical sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

clog (any object that acts as a hindrance or obstruction)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Coalesce or unite in a mass

Example:

Blood clots

Synonyms:

clog; clot

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "clog" is one way to...):

coalesce (fuse or cause to grow together)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Impede with a clog or as if with a clog

Example:

My mind is constipated today

Synonyms:

clog; constipate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "clog" is one way to...):

slow; slow down; slow up (cause to proceed more slowly)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Impede the motion of, as with a chain or a burden

Example:

horses were clogged until they were tamed

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "clog" is one way to...):

cumber; encumber; restrain (restrict (someone or something) so as to make free movement difficult)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Become or cause to become obstructed

Example:

The water pipe is backed up

Synonyms:

back up; choke; choke off; clog; clog up; congest; foul

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "clog" is one way to...):

block; close up; impede; jam; obstruct; obturate; occlude (block passage through)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "clog"):

gum up (stick together as if with gum)

crap up (become obstructed or chocked up)

block; choke up; lug; stuff (obstruct)

silt; silt up (become chocked with silt)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

unclog (become or cause to become unobstructed)

Derivation:

clog (any object that acts as a hindrance or obstruction)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Dance a clog dance

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "clog" is one way to...):

dance; trip the light fantastic; trip the light fantastic toe (move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance)

Domain category:

dance; dancing; saltation; terpsichore (taking a series of rhythmical steps (and movements) in time to music)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue clog

Derivation:

clog (a dance performed while wearing shoes with wooden soles; has heavy stamping steps)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Lifestyle changes and medicines may help prevent arteries from becoming clogged again.

(Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

In people with cystic fibrosis, however, the defective gene makes a protein that is itself defective, causing the accumulation of acidic and sticky mucus that not only clogs the lungs and makes it hard to breathe, but also makes the lungs vulnerable to bacterial infection.

(Scientists find new approach that shows promise for treating cystic fibrosis, National Institutes of Health)

It causes the body to produce thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs, leads to infection, and blocks the pancreas, which stops digestive enzymes from reaching the intestine where they are required in order to digest food.

(Diagnosing cystic fibrosis with wearable devices, NIH)

Three kings protested to me, that in their whole reigns they never did once prefer any person of merit, unless by mistake, or treachery of some minister in whom they confided; neither would they do it if they were to live again: and they showed, with great strength of reason, that the royal throne could not be supported without corruption, because that positive, confident, restiff temper, which virtue infused into a man, was a perpetual clog to public business.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Yes, I was moved—I, Van Helsing, with all my purpose and with my motive for hate—I was moved to a yearning for delay which seemed to paralyse my faculties and to clog my very soul.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Researchers have found that treating psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, with biologic drugs that target immune system activity can reduce the early plaque buildup that clogs arteries, restricts blood flow, and leads to heart attacks and stroke.

(Study links psoriasis treatment and improvement in heart artery disease, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water, that rose in the midst of it, she sat herself down to rest a while.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I have known a great deal of the trouble of annuities; for my mother was clogged with the payment of three to old superannuated servants by my father's will, and it is amazing how disagreeable she found it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I walked a long time, and when I thought I had nearly done enough, and might conscientiously yield to the fatigue that almost overpowered me—might relax this forced action, and, sitting down on a stone I saw near, submit resistlessly to the apathy that clogged heart and limb—I heard a bell chime—a church bell.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It had taken Cherokee a long time to shift that grip upward, and this had also tended further to clog his jaws with fur and skin-fold.

(White Fang, by Jack London)