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clogged

adjectiveB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,963 of 15,258leans spoken

Clogged means blocked so that nothing can pass. A clogged drain, clogged pores, clogged with leaves.

It implies gradual accumulation rather than a single obstruction, which is why drains, filters, arteries and roads are described this way. A clogged filter still passes something, badly. Note clog, the wooden shoe, which is the same word — a clog was originally a block of wood.

Definitions of clogged

  1. 1adjectivecloggedBlocked so that nothing can pass.B2

    “The kitchen sink was clogged with grease and food scraps.”

clogged is a quality of blockage.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Germanic

    *klumpô — lump, mass, clasp

  2. Middle English

    clog — weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement

  3. English

    clog

  4. English, today

    clogged

clog unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog (“weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement”). Perhaps of gmq - origin and derived from Proto-Germanic klumpô (“lump, mass, clasp”); compare Old Norse klugu, klogo (“knotty tree log”), klomp.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Cleaning & Housework

Practise this word

clogged in the wild

  • In otitis media, the ear is infected or clogged with fluid behind the ear drum, in the normally air-filled middle-ear space.

    Otitis

  • A plumber's snake is often used by plumbers to clear a clogged drain pipe or sanitary sewer.

    Plumber's snake

  • The vessel clogged passage to and from Friday harbor for several hours and the ship was out of service for some time.

    MV Yakima

  • But by 2011 the river was clogged with the garbage again.

    Jegrička Nature Park

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.