clog

Definition

A type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.

Etymology

Unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog (“weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement”). Perhaps of North Germanic origin and derived from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“lump, mass, clasp”); compare Old Norse klugu, klogo (“knotty tree log”), Dutch klomp.

Example Sentences

• "Dutch people rarely wear clogs these days."
• "[…] as to the poor—just look at them when they come crowding about the church-doors on the occasion of a marriage or a funeral, clattering in clogs; […]"
• "She stomped up the stairs. Her clogs slammed against the pine boards of the staircase and shook the house."