clayish


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clay

 (klā)
n.
1.
a. A fine-grained, firm earthy material that is plastic when wet and hardens when heated, consisting primarily of hydrated silicates of aluminum and widely used in making bricks, tiles, and pottery.
b. A hardening or nonhardening material having a consistency similar to clay and used for modeling.
2. Geology A sedimentary material with grains smaller than 0.002 millimeter in diameter.
3. Moist sticky earth; mud.
4. The human body as opposed to the spirit.

[Middle English clei, from Old English clæg.]

clay′ey (klā′ē), clay′ish adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
One [soil] is very clayish; one is less clayish," he explains.
According to the Japan Times, a research team led by the University of Tokyo has concluded that cesium-137 gets easily absorbed in clayish soil and concentrates in seabed depressions.
An important percentage is held by Eutricambisols (27%) with clayish to loam-clay texture and by Luvisols (20%) with clayey texture.
Our soil here in southeastern Wisconsin is clayish and bakes to almost concrete when dry.
It can improve just about any soil, whether it's too clayish, too sandy, too soggy, too dry, too compacted, too acidic or too alkaline.
I like the kind that comes out of those earthenware water filters, the clayish coloured ones, you know?
There was something interesting for this new farmer about visiting a country suffering from chronic scarcity of water, constant droughts and intense heat over sandy to clayish soil-and yet, is still able to produce export-quality vegetables and fruits.
Although clayish calcic-type montmorillonite predominates the expansion, the percentage is lower in the Monterrey soil, which suggests that calcium soil has a lower alkalinity and interchange capacity of ions and anions (expanding capacity) than the sodic soil.
It is situated on the Ewekoro Formation and the soil is lateritic clayish. The climate is tropical continental.
"Charlie, look at this." It was a finger, longer than the thumb, and of the same clayish