clays

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of clay.

   Potters often blend two clays to get the color and strength they want.

   The sailors packed their clays with tobacco and smoked on deck.

   Note

   Clay is usually a mass noun, so its plural mostly means kinds rather than lumps: the clays a potter blends, the red and gray clays of a riverbank. The smoking pipe is the exception and counts like any object, so a rack of old clays holds pipes, not earth. The same spelling serves the verb form, as in she clays the garden beds.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of clay.

   Each spring the gardener clays the light, sandy beds to help them hold moisture.

   In the old refinery, a worker clays each sugar mold to draw out the dark syrup.

   Note

   The verb is transitive and always needs an object: a gardener clays sandy beds, a refiner clays a sugar mold. It has two jobs. One is spreading clay onto something, often to help light soil hold moisture; the other is purifying with clay, as when a sugar mold is clayed to draw out the dark syrup.

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