I.that which serves for closing:
1.a bar or bolt, drawn or undrawn by a latch or thong (ἱμάς), Hom.
2.a key, or rather a kind of catch or hook, by which the bar (ὀχεύς) was shot or unshot from the outside, id=Hom.
3.a key (unknown to Hom.), Aesch., Eur.
4.metaph., Ἁσυχία βουλᾶν τε καὶ πολέμων κλαῖδας ἔχοισα Pind.; κλῇς ἐπὶ γλώσσῃ βέβηκε, of enforced silence, Soph.; so, καθαρὰν ἀνοῖξαι κλῇδα φρενῶν Eur.
II.the hook or tongue of a clasp, Od.
III.the collar-bone, so called because it locks the neck and breast together Il., Soph., etc.
IV.a rowing bench, which locked the sides of the ship together, Od.
V.a narrow pass, "the key" of a country, Hdt.; a strait, Eur.
