Chiefly north. dial. Also 5–7 clagge. [Not traced beyond the 15th c.: perh. of Norse origin, cf. Da. klag, klagge, sticky mud, clay, klæg, klæget viscous, glutinous, sticky, which point to the same origin as OE. clæʓ, CLAY. There may have been some subseq. association with clog; but in localities where clag is indigenous, it is kept quite distinct from clog.]
1. trans. To bedaub (the clothes), clot (the hair) with anything sticky and tenacious, as miry clay, glue, toffee, etc.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VI. 455. The gown and hois in clay that claggit was.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 140. We come to the gates all clagged with myre and clay.
c. 1538. Lyndesay, Syde Taillis, 68. Ane mureland Meg … Claggit with clay abone the howis.
1881. Sutton, N. Linc. Gloss., Clagged, clotted with dirt.
1886. Cole, S. W. Linc. Gloss., Clag, to daub, or clog together with sticky mud or clay.
2. To clog by such bedaubing or clotting.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 232 b. She [the bee] wyll also clagge her legges with as moche as she may beare.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 62. A means to clagge the bees, and to make them abide better in the hive.
1883. Almondbury & Huddersf. Gloss., Clag, the same as clog, as when dust [mixed with the oil] causes machinery to move with difficulty.
3. intr. To stick tenaciously, as anything adhesive, or viscid; also transf.
1563. Hyll, Arte Garden. (1593), 14. Least by raine and shoures, the earth should cleaue and clagge on your feete.
1570. Levins, Manip., 10. To clag, herere vt lutum.
1795. W. Marshall, E. Yorksh. (ed. 2), Gloss., Clag, to cleave or cling.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Clag, to adhere as paste; also to cling as the child to the mother, who says ‘it clags to its best friend.’
1876. Mid. Yorksh. Gloss., Clag, to adhere, to cling, to cleave to.
4. dial. [f. CLAG sb.] To remove the clags or dirty clots from a flecce. (Cf. CLACK v.2)
1863. Gloss., in Morton, Cycl. Agric. (E. D. S.), Clag (Linc.), see Burl. Burl, to cut away the dirty wool from the hind parts of a sheep.
