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Glite Dictionary
🧶 To roll up 🛏️ Hammock cords 🕵️ A helpful hint 🧶 A ball of thread
to clew

to clew

1 9.9
To roll rope or yarn into a neat ball
  • verb
  • /klu/
  • Archaic
translation icon : enrollar
  • To keep the yarn from tangling, she clewed it neatly before starting her knitting project.

Examples

  • As we cleaned up the deck, we clewed the loose lines to make everything safe.

  • Clew up and stow the main course!

    The Little Mermaid (2023)

  • Q: Can "clue" and "clew" be used interchangeably?

    Blog text (20)

  • Come on, clew out.

    China Seas (1935)

  • Clew out.

    China Seas (1935)

  • To this day, the word for a ball of yarn is spelled "clew" in Scotland and the north of England, the OED says.

    Blog text (20)

  • The first pair peeled off, the Firefly clewed and shot off to the right, and the CD to the left.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The freighter shuddered and narrowly missed plowing into the mountainside before clewing to follow the running fight.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The sailor quickly clewed the ropes into a tidy bundle after securing the sails.

Synonyms

to roll
vsto clew
387 1.3

To shape something into a long round form by turning it

is specific to making a round coiled mass of rope or yarn
to roll up
vsto clew
25 3.4

Fold or turn something so it becomes a tight round shape

refers to forming a round coiled mass for rope or yarn rather than folding
to ball
vsto clew
18 6.0

To form something into a round shape by rolling or winding

is used mainly for coiled rope or yarn rather than any object

How Tight

to clew
  • Archaic
1 9.9
to wind
225 3.2
to loop
28 2.5

Surface Forms

clew infinitive
clewed past
clewed past participle
clewing present participle
clews third person singular

Etymology

Clew as a verb comes from the old idea of making a 'ball of thread', so it means to wind rope or yarn into a neat coil. That's why to clew something is to roll it into a rounded mass to stop it from tangling.