▪ I. cheet, int. Sc. and north. dial.
(tʃiːt)
‘The call directed to a cat, when one wishes her to approach. It is generally doubled’ (Jam.). = puss, puss! So cheetie = pussy.
| 1806 Falls Clyde 169 (Jam.), Cheat! cheat! waesucks, I doubt poor thing she's dead. |
▪ II. cheet, v. dial.
To cheep. Hence cheeter.
| 1883 Gloss. Almondb. & Huddersf. 24 Birds cheet, and it is said specially of a robin as winter approaches..If shoes cheet, they are supposed not to have been paid for. Young pigeons are..called cheeters in Yorkshire. [Erroneously attributed by Webster, and others from him, to Tennyson, who uses cheep.] |