Other forms: clays
Clay is heavy sticky earth that can be shaped when wet and goes hard when fired. A clay pot, clay soil, work in clay.
For a gardener, clay soil is the difficult kind — it holds water, cracks in summer and is heavy to dig. For a potter it is the material itself, and there are many kinds. In tennis, clay is one of the three court surfaces and the slowest of them, which is why the French Open plays differently from Wimbledon. Note feet of clay, meaning a hidden weakness in somebody admired, which comes from a dream in the Book of Daniel.
1nounclayHeavy sticky earth used for making pots and bricks.
“The whole valley is clay and impossible to dig in August.”
2nountennisA tennis court surface made from crushed brick.
“He has never won a title on clay.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
clay is a kind of earth.
Old English claeg comes from a root meaning to stick or glue — the same root as glue, gluten and clam. Clay is named for what it does to your boots, which is the most practical possible way to name a soil.
Middle English
cley
English, today
clay
From Middle English cley. From Middle English cley,clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic klaij, from Proto-Germanic klajjaz (“clay”), Proto-Indo-European gleyH- (“to glue, paste, stick together”). Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία, Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (“clay”). Related also to clag, clog.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA