1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis. The luck turned from that minute ...
came away cleared out, leaving that infernal check behind me.
1884. Illustrated London News, Christmas Number, p. 6, col. 2. He
cleared you out that night, old man.
Cleave, verb (old).—To be wanton; used of women. [Quoted by Grose,
1785.]
Cleft, subs. (common).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see
Monosyllable.
Clegg, subs. (Scots).—A horse-fly.
Clencher.—See Clincher.
Clergyman, subs. (common).—A chimney-sweep. [In allusion to the colour
of ‘the cloth.’] Clergymen in their turn = ‘chimney sweeps.’
English Synonyms. Black draught; knuller; flue-faker; querier; chummy.
French Synonyms. Un artiste; Jean de la suie.
St. Nicholas’ clerk or clergyman (old).—A highwayman.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., I. A quarrel, by the highway side,
between a brace of Saint Nicholas Clargie men. [m.]
1597. Shakspeare, King Henry IV., i. 1. Sirrah, if they meet not
with St. Nicholas’ clerks, I’ll give thee this neck.
Clerked, ppl. adj. (old). Imposed upon; ‘sold’ (q.v.).
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. The cull will not be clerked.
Clerks.—See St. Nicholas’ Clerk.
Clerk’s Blood, subs. (old).—Red ink. A common expression of Charles
Lamb’s.
Clever Shins, phr. (school).—Sly to no purpose.
Cleymes, subs. (old).—Artificial sores, made by beggars to excite
charity.
Click, subs. (pugilistic).—A blow. For synonyms, see Dig, bang and
wipe. Also a hold in wrestling.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 18. Home-hits in the
bread-basket clicks in the gob. Ibid, p. 30.
1871. Daily Telegraph, 8 April. C. and W. Wrestling Society. The
various competitors struggled hard and put on all they knew in
‘hipes,’ ‘hanks,’ ‘clicks,’ ‘strokes,’ and ‘buttockings.’
Verb (old).—See quots., and Cf., Clicker.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Click (v.) ... or to stand at a
shop-door and invite customers in, as salesmen and shoemakers do.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. To click a nab; to snatch a hat.
Clicker, or Klicker, subs. (old).—1. A shop-keeper’s tout. [Formerly a
shoemaker’s doorsman or barker (q.v.), but in this particular trade the
term is nowadays appropriated to a foreman who cuts out leather and
dispenses materials to workpeople; a sense not altogether wanting from
the very first.]
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Clicker: the shoemaker’s
journeyman or servant, that cutts out all the work, and stands at
or walks before the door, and saies, ‘What d’ye lack, sir? what
d’ye buy, madam?’
1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. V., p. 117. Women were here almost as
Troublesome as the Long-Lane Clickers.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Clicker (s.): the person that
stands at a shoe-maker’s door to invite customers to buy the wares
sold there.
1864. Hotten, Slang Dictionary. Clicker: a female touter at the
bonnet shops in Cranbourne Alley. In Northamptonshire, the cutter
out in a shoemaking establishment.