Clew; Clue

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A ball of thread, yarn, or cord; also, The thread itself. Untwisting his deceitful clew. Spenser.

2. That which guides or directs one in anything of a doubtful or intricate nature; that which gives a hint in the solution of a mystery. The clew, without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of countinental politics, was in his hands. Macaulay.

3. A lower corner of a square sail, or the after corner of a fore- and-aft sail. (b.)

4. A loop and thimbles at the corner of a sail. (c.)

5. A combination of lines or nettles by which a hammock is suspended. Clew garnet (Naut.), one of the ropes by which the clews of the courses of square-rigged vessels are drawn up to the lower yards. -- Clew line (Naut.), a rope by which a clew of one of the smaller square sails, as topsail, topgallant sail, or royal, is run up to its yard. -- Clew-line block (Naut.), The block through which a clew line reeves. See Illust. of Block.