▪ I. claik, n. Sc.
(kleɪk)
[f. claik v.]
1. The cry or call of a goose or other fowl.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 39 The fox follouit the fed geise, & gart them cry claik. 1808 Jamieson, Claik, the noise made by a hen. |
2. Chatter, gossip, clatter. (Cf. cackle.)
| 1790 Morrison Poems 187 (Jam.) The country's fu' Wi' lees and claiks, about young Ket and you. |
3. (Also 6–9 clake, 7 clayk, 8 cleck, 9 clack.) The Barnacle-goose, Anas leucopsis, probably so named from its call.
| a 1455 Houlate xvii, Correker of kirkmen was clepit the Claik. 1570–87 Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1806) I. 22 These claiks (or Barnacls as I call them). 1694 Narborough, etc. Acc. Sev. Late Voy. (1711) Introd. 14 They discovered the Bernacle Goose or Clakis sitting upon their Eggs, under the 80{supt}{suph} Deg. north Lat. |
b. More fully claik-goose.
| 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. Introd. 48 Of the nature of Claik Geis..Sum men belevis, that thir clakis growis on treis be the nebbis. 16.. Monipennie in Macleod Hist. Dumbarton (1878) ii. 49 Clayk geese black of colour. 1706 J. Watson Collect. Poems i. 48 (Jam.) When the Cleck Geese leave off to clatter. 1744 Preston Zetland in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 61 There are many Sorts of Wild-fowl; namely the Dunter Goose, Clark [? = Claik], Goose, Solan Goose, etc. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xliv, Like sea-maws and clack-geese before a storm. 1841 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. 255 The bernicle or clake goose. |
4. The barnacle shell.
| 1703 M. Martin Descr. Western Isl. (1716) 357. 1744 Preston Zetland in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 62 Pieces of Wreck..grown over with the Shells of a Fish called Cleck Geese, which I take to be the Conchæ anatiferæ. |
▪ II. claik, v. Sc.
[prob.:—ON. klaka, to chatter, twitter, and thus identical with certain senses of clack v.]
intr. To cry as geese or other fowls; to chatter, talk so as to bore people.
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. Prol. 109 The wyld geis claking eik by nychtis tyde. 1838 A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. (1843) 77 That daidlin claikin creature of a lawyer. |