▪ I. cleek, n. Chiefly Sc.
(kliːk)
Forms: 5–6 cleke, 5–7 cleik, 8– cleek.
[Related to cleek v.; cf. southern ME. cleche. Cf. also click.]
1. a. A large hook or crook for catching hold of and pulling something; or for hanging articles on, from a rafter, or the like. Cleeks are used by fishermen.
| 1426 Acts Jas. I (1597) §7 Cleikes of irin, to draw downe Timber and Ruiffis that ar fired. 1541 Sc. Ld. Treas. Acc. in Pitcairn Crim. Trials I. *310 Nalis, [or] clekis to hing þe clathis. 1682 Claverhouse in Napier Mem. (1859) I. i. 137 The smith at Minnigaff, that made all the clikys. 17.. Anc. Poems Peasantry (1846) 113 He has made a cleek but and a creel. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 200 B, is a hook, or the cleek..which joins the muzzle and swingle-tree. 1822 Scott Nigel xxxvii, ‘He hings his sword on the cleek’. 1865 Reader 12 Aug. 172/1 Having lost a hand..Ronald has had it replaced by an iron hook, which he calls a ‘cleek’. |
b. Golf. An iron-headed club with a straight, narrow face and a long shaft. Also attrib.
| 1829 J. S. Blackie Let. 11 Dec. in Lett. to Wife (1909) 42 As if the golfers at St. Andrews should go down to the links..with an immense array of all sorts of clubs, and then, after having swung their drivers and cleques most scientifically in the air, should come back again without playing a single game. 1857 [see put, putt v.2 3]. 1883 Standard 16 Nov. 5/2 He..is ready with..the cleek [at golf]. 1890 H. G. Hutchinson Golf iv. 102 It is a stroke..with the brassy, cleek or iron. 1893 ― Golfing (ed. 2) 19 We cannot be far wrong in advising the golfer to choose his cleek-heads thick. 1909 P. A. Vaile Mod. Golf 107 The ordinary cleek shot. |
2. An act of cleeking, a clutch.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 2163 May vs noȝt limp..To couer be cas at a cleke courseris a thousand? |
† 3. Name of some griping disease; Jamieson says ‘cramp in the legs’. Obs.
| a 1605 Montgomerie Flyting 301 The cords and the cout-euill, the claisps and the cleiks. |
4. Comb., as cleek-staff, cleek-shank, etc.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 80 Cley[k]staffe, cambuca. |
▪ II. cleek, v. north. dial.
(kliːk)
Forms: 5–6 cleke, 6 cleake, 6– cleik, 7– cleek. pa. tense 5– claucht, claught; also Sc. cleikit.
[A northern form corresp. to southern cleach, ME. clechen: cf. cleek n.]
1. trans. To seize with the clutch or hand; to lay hold of, clutch, grasp, or seize, firmly, suddenly, or eagerly. Also to cleek hold (of).
| c 1440 York Myst. xxx. 240 An I cleke yowe, I schall felle yow. c 1470 Henry Wallace ii. 98 Be the coler claucht him withoutyn baid. 1513 Douglas æneis xi. xv. 89 Thai claucht and lappit in thar armys This Quene. 1530 Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 1169 The gled the pece claucht in his cluke. 1570 Levins Manip. 206 Cleake. corripere. a 1640 Jackson Creed xi. xxxiv. Wks. XI. 66 The proposal..makes souls so affected cleek the faster hold. 1790 Burns Tam O'Shanter 217 The carlin claught her by the rump, And left poor Maggie scarce a stump. 1814 Scott Wav. xviii, ‘Wanting to cleik the cunzie (that is, to hook the siller)’. 1818 ― Hrt. Midl. xviii, ‘I made what haste I could to cleek the callant’. |
2. To lay hold of and draw suddenly to oneself, as with a hook or crook: to snatch.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 300 Þei shal cleke to freris alle þe goodis þat þei mai geten. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1164 That thus clekys this corsaunt owte of thir heghe clyffez. 1530 Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 1046 Cleikand to thame skarlote and Crammosie. a 1605 Montgomerie Sonn. xxii, To Aduersars Lawyers 2 Suppose ȝe come to cleik auay my King. |
b. To snatch, pluck, or pull, out, up, off.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2123 He clekys owtte Collbrande fulle clenlyche burneschte. a 1400–50 Alexander 2937 (Ashm.) With þat he clekis vp þe coupe [v.r. clyght vp a cupe]. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 2478 His sholder als ofgan he kleke. 1572 Lament. Lady Scotl. in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 244 Power to cleik up the benifices. a 1745 Jacobite Ballad, ‘Wee Wee German Lairdie’, And up his beggar duds he cleeks. 1855 E. Waugh Lancash. Life (1857) 30 Cleeked up like lumps o' gowd. |
c. fig. To snatch up, raise suddenly.
| a 1550 Peebles to Play vi, He cleekit up ane hie ruf sang. |
3. To catch or lay hold of with a cleek.
| 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago III. 45 ‘The chance o' cleiking a fish’. |
Hence (and from n.) cleeked a., ˈcleeking ppl. a.; ˈcleeky Sc., a., addicted to cleeking, grasping, captious; n. a cleeked stick, a crooked staff.
| 1566 Drant Horace Sat. viii. D viij b, I am molested very muche with fowles and cleekynge theves. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. II. 369 Another walked behind the horses with a cleeked staff. 1810 Cromek Rem. Nithsdale Song 165 (Jam.) Ken ye whare cleekie Murray's gane? 1820 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 201 (Jam.) Frae that day to this my guid aik cleeky has never been mair heard tell o'. |