Clew

[kloo] /klu/

noun
1.
(def 1).
2.
Nautical. either lower corner of a square sail or the after lower corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
3.
a ball or skein of thread, yarn, etc.
4.
Usually, clews. the rigging for a hammock.
5.
Theater. a metal device holding scenery lines controlled by one weighted line.
6.
Classical Mythology. the thread by which Theseus found his way out of the labyrinth.
verb (used with object)
7.
to coil into a ball.
8.
(def 3).
9.
Theater.

Verb phrases
10.
clew down, Nautical. to secure (a sail) in an unfurled position.
11.
clew up, Nautical. to haul (the lower corners of a square-rig sail) up to the yard by means of the clew lines.
Idioms
12.
spread a large clew, Nautical.

/kluː/
noun
1.
a ball of thread, yarn, or twine
2.
(nautical) either of the lower corners of a square sail or the after lower corner of a fore-and-aft sail
3.
(usually pl) the rigging of a hammock
4.
a rare variant of clue
verb
5.
(transitive) to coil or roll into a ball
n.

“ball of thread or yarn,” northern English and Scottish relic of Old English cliewen “sphere, ball, skein, ball of thread or yarn,” probably from West Germanic *kleuwin (cf. Old Saxon cleuwin, Dutch kluwen), from Proto-Germanic *kliwjo-, from PIE *gleu- “gather into a mass, conglomerate” (see clay).