clod

Etymology

From Middle English clod, a late by-form of clot, from Old English clot, from Proto-West Germanic *klott (“mass, ball, clump”). Compare clot and cloud; cognate to Dutch klodde (“rag”) and kloot (“clod”).

noun

1. A lump of something, especially of earth or clay.
   1600, Edward Fairfax (translator), originally published in 1581 by Torquato Tasso, w:Jerusalem Delivered clods of blood
   As for yon clod of clay, we will bury it later, lest it should pollute so goodly a pool. 1903, Warwick Deeping, Uther and Igraine
   One of the clods took it back of the ear, and it used language. It gave me a thrill, for it was the first time I had ever heard speech, except my own. 1906, Mark Twain, Eve's Diary
   "What a bunch of hooey," I said under my breath, tossing a dirt clod over my shoulder against the locked-up garden shed. 2010, Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest
2. The ground; the earth; a spot of earth or turf.
   the clod where once their sultan's horse hath trod 1723, Jonathan Swift, Pethox the Great
3. A stupid person; a dolt.
   'What was its number?' 'I don't know, sir.' 'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest, and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?' 1906, Robert Barr, The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont
   So here's a valentine for you, you insensitive clod!! February 14 1986, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
   Gerald Broflovski: You see Kyle, we humans work as a society, and in order for a society to thrive, we need gods and clods. 1998, Chickenpox (episode of South Park TV series)
   Peridot: Don't touch that! You clods don't know what you're doing! 2015, "Jail Break" (episode of Steven Universe TV series)
4. Part of a shoulder of beef, or of the neck piece near the shoulder.

verb

1. (transitive) To pelt with clods.
   When I went there yesterday evening in the gloaming it had crept down and was trying to catch the little speckled fishes that play in the pool, and I had to clod it to make it go up the tree again and let them alone. 1906, Mark Twain, Eve's Diary
   when I came out and started to hoist it to the mule's back they rushed at me and jerked my suspenders down and then they clodded me with chunks of dirt 1959, Louis L'Amour, The First Fast Draw
2. (transitive, Scotland) To throw violently; to hurl.
3. To collect into clods, or into a thick mass; to coagulate; to clot.
   Clodded in lumps of clay. 1610, Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victorie and Triumph