Cog vs Clog - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between cog and clog

is that cog is a ship of burden, or war with a round, bulky hull while clog is a type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.

As verbs the difference between cog and clog

is that cog is to furnish with a cog or cogs while clog is to block or slow passage through (often with 'up').

cog

English

(wikipedia cog)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) cogge, from (etyl) kogge, cogghe (modern kogge), from (etyl) . See below.

Noun

(en noun)

(label) A ship of burden, or war with a round, bulky hull.

*, Bk.V, Ch.iv:

*:As the Kynge was in his cog and lay in his caban, he felle in a slumberyng.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) cogge, from (etyl) (compare (etyl) . The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel.

Noun

(en noun)

A tooth on a gear

A gear; a cogwheel

An unimportant individual in a greater system.

* 1976, Norman Denny (English translation),

‘There are twenty-five of us, but they don’t reckon I’m worth anything. I’m just a cog in the machine.’

* 1988,

Your boss tells you “take initiative,” you best guess right—and you do , then you get no credit. Day-in, … smiling, smiling, just a cog .

(carpentry) A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.

(mining) One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.

Derived terms

* cog joint

Verb

(cogg)

To furnish with a cog or cogs.

Etymology 3

Uncertain origin. Both verb and noun appear first in 1532.

Noun

(en noun)

A trick or deception; a falsehood.

(William Watson)

Verb

(cogg)

to load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat

to cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently

* Jonathan Swift

For guineas in other men's breeches, / Your gamesters will palm and will cog .

To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat.

* Shakespeare

I'll cog their hearts from them.

To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off.

to cog in a word

* J. Dennis

Fustian tragedies have, by concerted applauses, been cogged upon the town for masterpieces.

Etymology 4

From (etyl) cogge

Alternative forms

* cogue

Noun

(en noun)

A small fishing boat

English terms with multiple etymologies ----

clog

English

Noun

(en noun) (wikipedia clog)

A type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.

Dutch people rarely wear clog s these days.

A blockage.

The plumber cleared the clog from the drain.

(UK, colloquial) A shoe of any type.

* 1987 , :

Withnail: I let him in this morning. He lost one of his clog s.

A weight, such as a log or block of wood, attached to a person or animal to hinder motion.

* Hudibras

As a dog by chance breaks loose, / And quits his clog .

* Tennyson

A clog of lead was round my feet.

That which hinders or impedes motion; an encumbrance, restraint, or impediment of any kind.

* Burke

All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and institutions of England are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression.

Derived terms

* clogs to clogs in three generations * pop one's clogs

Verb

To block or slow passage through (often with 'up' ).

Hair is clogging the drainpipe.

The roads are clogged up with traffic.

To encumber or load, especially with something that impedes motion; to hamper.

* Dryden

The wings of winds were clogged with ice and snow.

To burden; to trammel; to embarrass; to perplex.

* Addison

The commodities are clogged with impositions.

* Shakespeare

You'll rue the time / That clogs me with this answer.