clayey
1
6.8
- adjective
- /ˈkleɪ.i/
- Her entire skin is taupe, like dry, clayey earth, rough as sandpaper.
- clayey soil
Examples
-
Hernandez, the cleaning man, wore his clayey, earthen aura.
Fiction book (1991) -
"The soils we have here at two ends of the island are very clayey," he explains.
Academic text (1999) -
Houston soils formed in clayey marine.
Academic text (1998) -
Like the images of the steep, clayey red slope down to the horizon, which the blind man born blind was getting ready to climb.
Fiction book (1993) -
Muttering under his breath, Worf began clawing at the damp, clayey soil.
Fiction book (1992) -
Soils are clayey and sandy yellow latosols (see Lovejoy and Bierregaard 1990 for a more detailed description of the study area and ongoing research projects).
Academic text (1992) -
The garden's soil is very clayey, which is ideal for growing certain types of plants.
-
When it rains, the clayey ground becomes muddy and difficult to walk on.
-
They discovered that the clayey soil retained water well, benefiting their agricultural efforts.
Synonyms
1
3.4
Having a soft sticky texture like wet clay
1
9.9
A rock or soil that contains a lot of clay
1
4.4
Has the feel of heavy, sticky soil that becomes soft when wet and is used to make pots
How Clayey
1
6.8
1
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Clayey comes from the simple word clay plus the ending -ey, which you can think of as meaning 'like' or 'full of' (as in snowy or muddy). So clayey describes soil that is 'full of clay' — heavy, sticky, and good at holding water, which is why clayey ground can be hard to work.