▪ I. clicket, n. Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈklɪkɪt)
Forms: 4 cliket(t, kleket, 4–5 clyket(t, 4–6 cleket, 5 clekyt, 6 clickette, clycket, (kliket, clycked), 7 cliquet, 6– clicket.
[a. OF. cliquet, which appears to have had most of the Eng. senses; cf. quot. 1300 in sense 1; also Du Cange ‘cliquetus pessulus versatilis, loquet alias cliquet’; Cotgr. cliquet ‘the ring, knocker, or hammer of a dore, a Lazars clicket or clapper’; mod.F. cliquet.]
1. The latch of a gate or door. Still dial.
| [a 1300 W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 170 Par cliket à cerure [gloss. lacche and hok] Ert la mesoun le plus sure.] c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 858 He went forthe at þe wyket, and waft hit hym after, Þat a clyket hit cleȝt clos hym byhynde. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. viii. 252 To openen and vndo þe hye ȝate..Hue haþ a keye and a clyket. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 668 Hec sericula, clykyt. 1530 Palsgr. 206/1 Clycket of a dore, clicquette. 1881 Shropsh. Word-bk, Clicket, the fastening of a gate. |
† 2. A latch-key. (In Maundevile it may mean a clapper: cf. 4.) Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 802 Ianuarie..Wol no wight suffren bere the keye Saue he hym self for of the smale wyket He baar alwey of siluer a Clyket..With which whan þat hym leste he it vnshette. Ibid. 873 This fresshe May ..In warm wex hath emprented the clyket..And Damyan..The cliket countrefeted pryuely. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) 210 He smytethe on the Gardyn Ȝate with a Clyket of Sylver, that he holdethe in his hond [? mistransl.: the Fr. is ‘sonne une clokette d'argent’, the other Eng. transl. ‘knylles a lytill bell of siluer þat he hase in his hand’]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 82/1 Clykett, clitorium, clavicula. 1483 Cath. Angl. 66/1 A clekett, clauis. 1579 E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. May 251 Clincke, a keyhole: Whose diminutiue is clicket, vsed of Chaucer for a Key. |
† 3. A catch, holdfast, trigger, bolt, that fastens anything by falling or springing into position. Obs.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce x. 401 Thair ledderis..maid a clap, quhen the cleket Wes festnyt fast in the kyrnell. Ibid. xvii. 674 In hye he gert draw the cleket [of a military engine] And smertly swappit out the stane. |
† 4. A contrivance for making a clicking sound: a. A clapper or rattle carried by beggars in France, like the clap-dish in England.
| 1611 Cotgr., Cliquette a clicket, or clapper; such as Lazers carrie about with them. 1634 T. Johnson tr. Parey's Chirurg. xxv. xviii. (1678) 606 Cliquets..have two or three little pieces of boards so fastned together with leather, that they will make a great noise. Ibid., Cliquets, where-with he would ever now and then make a great noise. 1737 Ozell Rabelais ii. xix, Such a Noise as the Lepers of Brittany use to do with their clappering Clickets. |
b. Bones rattled as accompaniment to music.
| 1611 Cotgr., Clicquettes, clickets; or flat bones, wherewith a prittie ratling noise is made. [Hence 1656–81 in Blount Glossogr.; and 1692 Coles.] |
c. fig. A chattering tongue. Cf. clapper.
| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Bourse, A tatling huswife, whose Clicket is euer wagging. |
5. Applied to a valve or lid that shuts with a click, and various other articles; see quots.
| c 1450 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 573 Clitella, a cliket, or a forsere. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Clicket, a large wooden salt-box, with a sloping lid, on hinges, and made to hang against the wall. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Clicket, the valve of a pump. |
6. In the following it is supposed by some to mean a she-fox: cf. clicket v.
| a 1500 MS. Cott. Galba E. ix. lf. 110 (Halliw.) [A good horse is] Tayled as fox, Comly as a kyng, Nekkyd as a dukyng, Mouthyd as a kliket. |
7. attrib. and Comb., as clicket-gate, a gate with a latch, a wicket; † clicket-key, a key for a † clicket-lock or latch-lock.
| a 1528 Skelton Bowge Courte 371 Lytell prety Cate, How ofte he knocked at her klycket gate. 1657 Reeve God's Plea 69 The spirit entred by the eare..the clicket-gate of conversion. |
| c 1524 Churchw. Acc. St. Mary Hill, London (Nichols 1797) 119, 5 plate lockes with *Cleket keyes. |
| 1439 Acc. All Souls Oxford in Rogers Agric. & Pr. III 552/1, 27 clicket locks each with 3 keys. 1527 Lanc. Wills I. 31 The cofur w{supt} the cleket lok. |
▪ II. clicket, v.
(ˈklɪkɪt)
For forms see n.
[f. clicket n.: cf. F. cliqueter to make a clicking noise.]
Hence ˈclicketing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1. trans. To latch or lock.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 103 Þe dore I-closet I-keiȝet and I-kliketed [1377 clicketed] to [kepe] þe þeroute. |
2. intr. To chatter.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 169 With hir that will clicket make daunger to cope, least quickly hir wicket seeme easie to ope. 1611 Cotgr., Cliquettement, a clicketting, clattering, clapping, clacking; chattering. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Clicket, to chatter. |
3. Of the fox: To be in heat, to copulate. Also transf. (Perhaps a distinct word.)
| 1575 Turberv. Venerie 189 When a bytche foxe goeth on clycqueting..she cryeth with a hollowe voyce like unto the howling of a madde dogge. Ibid. lxxv. 363 The Wolfe..goeth on clicketing in February. 1616 Fletcher Hum. Lieutenant ii. iv, Must ye be clicketing? 1629 Massinger Picture iii. iv. a 1659 Cleveland Count. Com. Man (1677) 101. 1870 Gd. Words May 312 A sudden bark..exactly like that of a clicketting fox. 1881 J. Payne 1001 Nights I. 3. |
4. intr. = click v.1 1 a; to make a clicking sound.
| 1908 W. De Morgan Somehow Good ix. 78 It [sc. a violin string] only clickets down because you will not screw in. 1911 ― Likely Story 201 This thing was inside brown paper, and rectangular. The corners were hard, but the middle clicketted. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 27 Your foot-falls, pale-faces..are a clicketing of bits of disjointed metal Working in motion. 1929 R. Bridges Test. Beauty iii. 371 This queer Pterodactyl..that in the sinister torpor of the blazing day clicketeth in heartless mockery of swoon and sweat. |