Do we say clew or clue

clew 231 occurrences

there was a mystery; no one knew what had become of the gentle, young half brother, more than thirty years his junior, whom once he seemed so fondly to love, but who, seven years ago, had disappeared suddenly, once for all, and left no clew of his fate.

She investigated allopathy, homeopathy, and electricity, without finding a clew; and modern philosophy gave her no distinct statement of the science of mind healing.

" "After all, I have my suspicion that he's got a clew to the mystery somehow, and that he expects to find those handsome wenches," said Mr. Bruteman.

" "It seems pretty certain that we cannot obtain any clew," rejoined Mr. Ammidon, "and we have already expended considerable in the effort.

Its glint furnished Peter the necessary clew.

There surely must be something I can say which will give me a clew."

But none had ever heard where the entrance to this enchanted hall was, till the farmer at Sewingshields, about fifty years since, was sitting knitting on the ruins of the castle, and his clew fell, and ran downwards through a rush of briars and nettles, as he supposed, into a subterraneous passage.

Full in the faith that the entrance to King Arthur's hall had now been discovered, he cleared the briary portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a vaulted passage, followed in his darkling way the thread of his clew.

But she would not speak or tell them what had happened and it was only when they had gotten her off in a cab with a motherly, big hearted woman who played shrew's and villainess' parts always on the stage but was the one person of the whole cast to whom every one turned in time of trouble that the rest searched the paper for the clew to the thing which had made Tony look like death itself.

I caught a glimpse of the fore-sheet, however, as the clew was first flapping violently, and then was brought under the restraint of its own proper, powerful purchase.

The first thing we did was to clew up the three top-gallant-sails.

I had about fifty more, that had fallen to me from the disposal of my property at the death of my father; but that was so vested as to preclude it from immediate use, and I even doubted whether it would not be found better ultimately to resign it, than, by claiming it, to risk the furnishing a clew to what I most of all dreaded, the persecution of Mr. Falkland.

The bag was a luxurious trifle in Brazilian lizard skin, with solid-gold mountings; but again there was no clew to the owner, no name, no cards, only some samples of dress goods, a little money, and an unmarked handkerchief.

He had tried vainly to get from the American some clew to the owner of cloak and bag, but the young man had refused to speak and, with sullen indifference, had allowed himself to be locked up in the big room at the depot.

Why did I think we should find the real clew to that Bordeaux counterfeiting gang in a Passy wine shop?

Man the top-gallant clew-lines, Mr Earing.

Clew up, and clew down!

Clew up, and clew down!

There was a branch near by, and the smell of mint in the air, so that had they been young Kentuckians one might have had a clew to the situation.

That there is in some words, and perhaps in some of every language, a natural connexion between the sounds uttered and the things signified, cannot be denied; yet, on the other hand, there is, in the use of words in general, so much to which nature affords no clew or index, that this whole process of communicating thought by speech, seems to be artificial.

This word being often remote, and sometimes understood, the sense is the only clew to the construction.

Obscurity, perplexity, and confusion, run through every treatise on the subject, and nothing could be so hopeless as an attempt to explain it, did not a circumstance present itself, which at once accounts for the confusion, and affords a clew to lead us out of it.

They looked the room over thoroughly for some clew to the mystery.

And how unerringly life had put her finger upon that clew!

The tenor clew.

clue 1069 occurrences

Possibly he might obtain therein a clue to the horse's owner.

Should the friends of the deceased sailor hear of his death, and come to look after his effects, there was very little probability of their finding anything among them to furnish a clue to either the new sealing-ground, or to the buried treasure of the pirate.

By this casual, spontaneous outbreaking, as it might be, the deacon got another clue to the stranger's knowledge, that gave him increased uneasiness.

Then he recollected the deceased mariner, the deacon's many conferences with him, the interest he had always appeared to take in the man, and the suddenness, as well as the time, of the purchase of the schooner; and he at once obtained a clue to the whole affair.

Still, the young man had his suspicions on the subject of the equipment of the other schooner, and suspicions that were now active and keen, and which led him directly to fancy that Daggett had also some clue to the very objects he was after himself.

Miss Halcombe's journal afforded me a clue.

A lady, well known in the fashionable vicinity of Portland-place, always accosts a stranger, with "I think I have seen you somewhere," which often leads to a clue for her finding out the history of the party.

and here was something to tell Elzevir when he came back, that the clue was found to the cipher, and the secret out.

The deformation itself furnishes no clue to a chronological conclusion.

However, this deformation furnishes no clue to the antiquity of the graves.

I place it here, having no clue as to date, nor does it matter:] LETTER 317 (Fragment) CHARLES LAMB TO MISS HUTCHINSON (?)

The best clue to a natural interpretation of the strange features of the surface of Mars is that suggested by the American astronomer Mr. W.H. Pickering in Popular Astronomy (1904).

A slight sketch of the poet's life, up to the period of his marriage, may afford us some clue to the quarter from which he selected his bride; we shall therefore give what is known of him in the fewest possible words.

Upon this point, unfortunately, there hangs a mist,not impenetrable, as we conceive, but yet impenetrated,a secret to which the given clue has been neglected, and which remains to the present day the opprobrium of a careless biography.

That she was a real personage is placed beyond cavil by "E.K.," the ostensible editor of the "Shepherd's Calendar"; and he has given us a clue to her name, if we have but the wit to follow it.

Simon eyed her curiously, and somewhat suspiciously, as he passed; but, taking her attire for his clue, he thought he recognized one of a class with whom Miss Wimple was accustomed to cope successfully; so he took his leave unconcerned.

Here's a tangible clue that may lead to the heart of the case.

The private detective had been able to get no slightest clue as to Maria's whereabouts.

His failure to find any clue in the private staircase after Paredes's arrest had clearly stimulated his interest in Bobby.

The handkerchief furnished me with an important clue.

Carroll, well versed in applied psychology, knew that in such a combination of facts there lay an important clue.

I've worked on that end of it, and I've had several of my best men circulating around trying to gather dope from the gossip shopsbut there doesn't seem to be a clue from this end.

I hasten to close my letter in order to follow at once the clue thus providentially suggested.

The executors of the will were obliged to advertise for him, not having any clue to his place of residence.

They are on the trackit's a real clue this time!

Do we say   clew   or  clue