The Collaborative International Dictionary
Clove \Clove\, imp. of Cleave.
Cleft.
--Spenser.
Clove hitch (Naut.) See under Hitch.
Clove hook (Naut.), an iron two-part hook, with jaws
overlapping, used in bending chain sheets to the clews of
sails; -- called also clip hook.
--Knight.
Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) a bend formed by two half hitches in opposite directions, used to make a line fast to a spar or to a larger rope; it will not slip
WordNet
n. a knot used to fasten a line temporarily to a post or spar
Wikipedia
The clove hitch is a type of knot. Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most important knots and is commonly referred to as a Double Hitch. A clove hitch is two successive half-hitches around an object. It is most effectively used as a crossing knot. It can be used as a binding knot, but is not particularly secure in that role. A clove hitch made around the rope's own standing part is known as either two half-hitches or buntline hitch, depending on whether the turns of the clove hitch progress away from or towards the hitched object.
Usage examples of "clove hitch".
He tied another drapery cord over her mouth in a gag and fastened it with a clove hitch.
Then he put the gun into the swag-bag, yanked the lacings tight, and tied them in a clove hitch that would come loose at a single pull.
He comes around the bar and stomps on it, and kicks it back and forth a few times until it's all tattered and threadbare, and then he ties a clove hitch in the thing and eighty-sixes it.
Working quickly and surely, catlike in his balance on the slippery, shelving rock, he hammered a spike into the face of the cliff, securely and at a downward angle, about three feet above the ledge, dropped a clove hitch over the top and kicked the rest of the coil over the ledge.
When the stake was fifteen inches deep, he looped the rope around in a clove hitch.
She'd gripped one and was loosing the clove hitch that held it to a stanchion before Jem could say, “.