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Lower vs Clew - What's the difference?

lower | clew |

As verbs the difference between lower and clew

is that lower is to let descend by its own weight, as something suspended; to let down or lower can be while clew is to roll into a ball.

As a adjective lower

is (low).

As a adverb lower

is .

As a noun clew is

(obsolete) a roughly spherical mass or body.

lower

English

Etymology 1

From (low) +

Adjective

(head)
  • (low)
  • bottom; more towards the bottom than the middle of an object
  • (geology, of strata or geological time periods) older
  • Antonyms
    * (more low) higher * (bottom) upper * (older) upper

    Adverb

    (head)
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To let descend by its own weight, as something suspended; to let down
  • lower a bucket into a well
    to lower a sail of a boat
  • to pull down
  • to lower a flag
    Lowered softly with a threefold cord of love / Down to a silent grave. .
  • To reduce the height of
  • lower a fence or wall
    lower a chimney or turret
  • To depress as to direction
  • lower the aim of a gun
  • To make less elevated
  • to lower one's ambition, aspirations, or hopes
  • To reduce the degree, intensity, strength, etc., of
  • lower the temperature
    lower one's vitality
    lower distilled liquors
  • To bring down; to humble
  • lower one's pride
  • (reflexive) (lower oneself ) To humble oneself; to do something one considers to be beneath one's dignity.
  • I could never lower myself enough to buy second-hand clothes.
  • To reduce (something) in value, amount, etc.
  • lower the price of goods
    lower the interest rate
  • To fall; to sink; to grow less; to diminish; to decrease
  • The river lowered as rapidly as it rose.
  • To decrease in value, amount, etc.
  • Synonyms
    * bring down * shorten * * reduce * reduce, turn down * * be humble * cut, reduce * die off, drop, fall, fall off, shrink * become/get smaller, become/get lower, lessen, reduce

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • .
  • Statistics

    *

    clew

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A roughly spherical mass or body.
  • * c. 1600 , , tr. Richard Surflet, Maison Rustique, or, The Countrie Farme :
  • If the whole troupe be diuided into many clewes , or round bunches, you need not then doubt but that there are many kings.
  • * 1796 , , The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam :
  • Both these creatures, by forming themselves in a clew , have often more the appearance of excrescences in the bark, than that of animals.
  • (archaic) A ball of thread or yarn.
  • * c. 1604-5 , , All's Well That Ends Well , Act 1, Scene 3:
  • If it be ?o, you have wound a goodly clew :
    If it be not, for?wear't: howe'er, I charge thee,
  • * 1831 , :
  • A rare, precious, and never interrupted race of philosophers to whom wisdom, like another Ariadne, seems to have given a clew of thread which they have been walking along unwinding since the beginning of the world, through the labyrinth of human affairs.
  • * 1889 , ":
  • The Fairy Paribanou was at that time very hard at work, and, as she had several clews' of thread by her, she took up one, and, presenting it to Prince Ahmed, said: "First take this ' clew of thread...
  • * 1962 , , Pale Fire :
  • on one side of her lay a pair of carpet slippers and on the other a ball of red wool, the leading filament of which she would tug at every now and then with the immemorial elbow jerk of a Zemblan knitter to give a turn to her yarn clew and slacken the thread.
  • Yarn or thread as used to guide one's way through a maze or labyrinth; a guide, a clue.
  • *
  • Therto have I a remedie in my thoght,
    That, by a clewe of twyne, as he hath goon,
    The same wey he may returne anoon,
    Folwing alwey the threed, as he hath come.
  • * 1766 , , The Sermons of Mr. Yorick :
  • With this clew , let us endeavour to unravel this character of Herod as here given.
  • * 1841 , , The Murders in the Rue Morgue :
  • To this horrible mystery there is not as yet, we believe, the slightest clew .
  • * 1870 , , History of the Norman Conquest :
  • We may here have lighted on the clew to the great puzzle.
  • * 1917 , :
  • They had followed immediately behind him, thinking it barely possible that his actions might prove a clew to my whereabouts...
  • * 1923 , :
  • And I brought the only clew to be found.
  • * 1926 , Robertus Love, The Rise and Fall of Jesse James , University of Nebraska, 1990:
  • Not often did Jesse James leave a clew to his identity when he galloped away from a crime of violence, back into the mysterious Nowhere whence he came.
  • (nautical) The lower corner(s) of a sail to which a sheet is attached for trimming the sail (adjusting its position relative to the wind); the metal loop or cringle in the corner of the sail, to which the sheet is attached. On a triangular sail, the clew is the trailing corner relative to the wind direction.
  • * 1858 , Walter Mitchell,
  • 'Mid the rattle of blocks and the tramp of the crew,
    Hisses the rain of the rushing squall;
    The sails are aback from clew' to ' clew ,
    And now is the moment for "MAINSAIL, HAUL!"
  • * 1858 , The Atlantic Monthly , "":
  • "Clew'" is Saxon; "garnet" (from granato, a fruit) is Italian,—that is, the garnet- or pomegranate-shaped block fastened to the ' clew or corner of the courses, and hence the rope running through the block.
  • * 1894 , :
  • I went over and asked him to let down the clews or corners of the mainsail, which had been drawn up in order to lessen the useless flapping of the sail against the rigging.
  • * 1901 , :
  • "Run aft, Haldane, and you too, Spokeshave. Loosen the bunt of the mizzen-trysail and haul at the clew . That’ll bring her up to the wind fast enough, if the sail only stands it!"
  • (in the plural) The sheets so attached to a sail.
  • * 1913 ,
  • The canvas running up in a proud sweep,
    Wind-wrinkled at the clews , and white like lint,
  • (nautical, in the plural) The cords suspending a hammock.
  • * 2000 , Ralph W Danklefsen, The Navy I Remember , Xlibris 2000, p. 21:
  • He taught us how to attach the clews to the ends of the hammock and then lash it between jack stays.
  • * 1864 , Andrew Forrester, The Female Detective :
  • Now, the fact is, I had started because I thought I saw the end of a good clew .
  • * 1910 , "Duck Eats Yeast," The Yakima Herald :
  • Telltale marks around the pan of yeast gave him a clew to the trouble.
  • * Macaulay
  • The clew , without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of Continental politics, was in his hands.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to roll into a ball
  • (nautical) (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail)
  • See also

    * clew-garnet * clef * clue