clear grit
The right spirit, real pluck ; also the genuine article, the real thing. Originally a piece of American slang.
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clear off
to leave or depart quickly
clear one's lines
To prepare or get ready to do something
clear the decks
Get everything out of the way that is not essential; get ready to set to work. A sea term. Decks are cleared before action.
clear the table
To finish or resolve all issues or tasks at hand
clearing house
The office or house where bankers do their "clearing," that is, the exchanging of bills and cheques and the pay- ment of balances, etc. Also, the house where the business of dividing among the different railway companies the proceeds of traffic passing over several lines for one covering payment was earned through. In London, the bankers' clearing house has been in Lombard Street since 1775.
cleaver
One that will cleave; used of a forward or wanton woman.
clem
A brick or stone.
Clench and Clinch
The latter is a variant of the former, which is the M.E. clenchen, from A.S. (be~)clencan, to hold fast.
cleopatra and her pearl
It is said that Cleopatra made a banquet for Antony, the costliness of which excited his astonishment; and, when Antony expressed his surprise, Cleo- patra took a pearl ear-drop, which she dissolved in a strong acid, and drank to the health of the Roman triumvir, saying, "My draught to Antony shall far exceed it.
Cleopatra's Needle
The obelisk so called, now m London on the Thames Embankment, was brought there in 1878 from Alexandria, whither it and its fellow (now in Central Park, New York) had been moved from Heliopolis
cleopatra's nose
It was Blaise Pascal (1623-62) who said, "If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed" (Pensees viii, 29); the allusion, of course, being to the tremendous results brought about by her enslavement through her charm and beauty, first of Julius Caesar and then of Mark Antony.
Clerical Titles
Clerk. As in ancient times the clergyman was about the only person who could write and read, the word clerical, as used in "clerical error," came to signify an orthographical error. As the respondent in church was able to read, he received the name of clerk, and the assistants in writing, etc., are so termed in business. (Lat. clencus, a clergyman.
clerical vestments
White. Emblem of purity, worn on all feasts, saints' days, and sacramental occasions.
clerked
Soothed, funned, imposed on. The cull will not be clerked; i.e. the fellow will not be imposed on by fair words.
cleymes
Artificial sores, made by beggars to excite charity.
click
A blow. A click in the muns; a blow or knock in the face. CANT.
click
A knock or blow. CLICK-HANDED, left-handed.—Cornish. A term in Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling for a peculiar kind of throw, as "an inside CLICK," or "an outside CLICK."
Click and Clack
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
click into gear
To start working or functioning smoothly and efficiently
click of the fingers
Very easily or quickly
click on something
to select or activate something on a computer screen
clicker
A salesman's servant; also, one who proportions out the different shares of the booty among thieves.
clicker
A female touter at a bonnet shop. In Northamptonshire, the cutter out in a shoemaking establishment. In the Dictionary of the Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew, Lond. n. d. (but prior to 1700), the CLICKER is described as "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?
clicket
Copulation of foxes; and thence used, in a canting sense, for that of men and women: as, The cull and the mort are at clicket in the dyke; the man and woman are copulating in the ditch.
cliggy
Or CLIDGY, sticky.—Anglo-Saxon, CLÆG, clay.—See CLAGGUM.
climate change
Long-term alteration of the Earth's weather patterns
climb
To climb the three trees with a ladder; to ascend the gallows.
climb down
To retreat from a previous position or statement
climb the ladder
Advance in a career or organization
climb the walls
to feel extremely anxious or frustrated
clinch
A pun or quibble. To clinch, or to clinch the nail; to confirm an improbable story by another: as, A man swore he drove a tenpenny nail through the moon; a bystander said it was true, for he was on the other side and clinched it.
clinch
(to get the), to be locked up in jail.
clincher
That which rivets or confirms an argument, an incontrovertible position. Also a lie which cannot be surpassed, a stopper-up, said to be derived as follows:—Two notorious liars were backed to outlie each other. "I drove a nail through the moon once," said the first. "Right," said the other; "I recollect the circumstance well, for I went round to the back part of the moon and clinched it"—hence CLINCHER.
cling-rig
Stealing tankards from public-houses, &c.
clink
A prison.
clink
A place in the Borough of Southwark, formerly privileged from arrests; and inhabited by lawless vagabonds of every denomination, called, from the place of their residence, clinkers. Also a gaol, from the clinking of the prisoners' chains or fetters: he is gone to clink.
clink-clanks
handcuffs
clinkers
A kind of small Dutch bricks; also irons worn by prisoners; a crafty fellow.
clip it
Stop talking or pay attention
clip someone's wings
Restrict someone's freedom or limit their abilities
clipper
A fine fast-sailing vessel. Applied also as a term of encomium to a handsome woman.
clipping
Excellent, very good. CLIPPER, anything showy or first-rate.
cliques and clans
Small, exclusive groups of people with shared interests
cloak and dagger
Secret and mysterious, often involving espionage or intrigue
Cloak and Sword Plays
Swashbuckling plays, full of fighting and adventure. The name comes from the Spanish comedies of the 16th- century dramatists, Lope de Vega and Calderon — the Commedia de capay espada; but whereas with them it signified merely a drama of domestic intrigue and was named from the rank of the chief characters, in France — and, through French influence, in England — it was applied as above.
cloak twitchers
Rogues who lurk about the entrances into dark alleys, and bye-lanes, to snatch cloaks from the shoulders of passengers.
clobbered
Drunk.
clock
A watch. Watches are also distinguished by the terms "red clock," a gold watch, and "white clock," a silver watch. Generally modified into "red’un" and "white’un."
clock in
to start work and record one's arrival time
clock is ticking
Time is passing and a decision must be made quickly
clock the tea
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
clockweight
A testicle.
clod hopper
A country farmer, or ploughman.
clod pate
A dull, heavy booby.
Clog Almanac
A primitive almanac or calendar, originally made of a four-square *kclog," or log of wood; the sharp edges were divided by notches into three months each, every week being marked by a bigger notch. The faces contained the saints' days, the festivals, the phases of the moon, and so on, sometimes in Runic characters, whence the "clog" was also called a "Runic staff.
clog up
to block or slow something
close
As close as God's curse to a whore's a-se: close as shirt and shitten a-se.
close as a clam
Mean, close-fisted; from the difficulty with which a clam is made to open its shell and give up all it has worth having.
Close as a Kentish oyster
Absolutely secret; hermetically sealed. Kentish oysters are pro- verbially good, and all good oysters are fast closed.
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