clove

Everyday

1. A small, dried, nail-shaped flower bud used as a strong-smelling spice, for example in cooking, mulled drinks and Christmas oranges. tree →
2. One small section of a bulb of garlic: «a clove of garlic». tree →
3. (old) Past tense of «cleave» (to split): «He clove the log in two.» tree →

In the lessons

In cooking and science, cloves come from a tree grown in Indonesia and Zanzibar; clove oil was used to numb toothache. In history lessons cloves were part of the spice trade. In recipes «two cloves of garlic» means two small segments, not two bulbs.

Examples

• Add two cloves of garlic to the sauce. tree →
• We pushed cloves into an orange to make a pomander. tree →
• Cloves smell warm and spicy. tree →
• Grandma rubbed clove oil on her sore tooth. tree →
• Ships sailed far to buy cloves and nutmeg. tree →
• One bulb of garlic has about ten cloves. tree →
• I took them gratefully, and as we went from one island to another I laid in stores of cloves, cinnamon, and other spices. tree →

Note

Countable: one clove, two cloves. A clove of garlic is not the whole garlic bulb — a common recipe trap. The old verb form «clove» (from cleave) is only in old stories and the Bible.