clove
n.n. a small, hard, brown seed from a flower that looks like a nail. You use it in cooking to give food a strong, spicy flavor.
n. a small, oval, aromatic seed of the flower of the evergreen tree Syzygium aromaticum. Used as a spice in cooking and as a unit of measurement in the spice trade.
I put a few cloves in the pot of soup.
The chef added several whole cloves to the marinade to give the meat a warm, spicy aroma.
While the bulb is the most recognizable part of the plant, the dried flower bud, known as a clove, is the primary source of the spice's intense flavor and fragrance.
From Middle English clove, an alteration of earlier clowe, borrowed from the first component of Old French clou (de girofle) (modern French clou de girofle), from Latin clāvus (“nail”) for its shape. Also see clāva (“knotty branch, club”). Doublet of clou and clavus.
From Middle English clove, from Old English clufu, from Proto-West Germanic klubu, from Proto-Germanic klubō, related to clēofan (“to cleave, split”), hence with the verbal etymology hereafter.
Borrowed from Dutch klove (now kloof). Doublet of kloof.