[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/clove.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / clove

[← C](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/C/)

# clove

«clove» in Mova's school dictionary: **A small, dried, nail-shaped flower bud used as a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a clove, cloves); verb form (cleave — old past tense «clove»)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A small, dried, nail-shaped flower bud used as a strong-smelling spice, for example in cooking, mulled drinks and Christmas oranges. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#m1)

2) One small section of a bulb of garlic: «a clove of garlic». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#m2)

3) (old) Past tense of «cleave» (to split): «He clove the log in two.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#m3)

### sense 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x1)
- We pushed cloves into an orange to make a pomander. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x2)
- Cloves smell warm and spicy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x3)
- Grandma rubbed clove oil on her sore tooth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x4)
- Ships sailed far to buy cloves and nutmeg. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x5)
- One bulb of garlic has about ten cloves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x6)
- I took them gratefully, and as we went from one island to another I laid in stores of cloves, cinnamon, and other spices. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/#x7)

### 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.

### In the corpora

- [Cloves and nutmeg grew only on a few tiny islands in the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «clove» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clove/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.