Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Idle discourse; silly talk; gossip.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A deafening bray shattered the dark, and the forest erupted in front of him with a clishmaclaver of crashing and startled shouts.

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005

  • But, unfortunately, should any untoward "o'er-night clishmaclaver" occasion the neglect of this duty, and the fire be left, like envy, to feed upon its own vitals, a remedy is at hand in the shape of a pan "o 'live coals" from some more provident neighbour, resident in an upper or lower "flat;" and thus without bundle-wood or "shavings," is the mischief cured.

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 536, March 3, 1832 Various

  • (Now, don't put any of your squinting constructions on this, or have any clishmaclaver about it among our acquaintances.)

    Robert Burns How To Know Him William Allan Neilson 1907

  • Prince Rose-Red talked without one second's intermission the whole time I was dressing him; and I allowed it, as papa and Una were not here to be disturbed by the clishmaclaver.

    Memories of Hawthorne Rose Hawthorne Lathrop 1888

  • George the Fort 'didna fill the throne verra doucely for a' their clishmaclaver, and I don't think young

    The House with the Green Shutters George Douglas Brown 1885

  • It soon became clear to me, that the dialogue about Lebanon and Damascus, which was followed up with a clishmaclaver anent dirks, daggers, red cloaks, and other bloody weapons which made all my flesh grue, had some connexion with Taffy's papers on the table -- out of which James had been diverting himself by reading bits here and there, at random like.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • Lebanon and Damascus, which was followed up with a clishmaclaver anent dirks, daggers, red cloaks, and other bloody weapons which made all my flesh grue, had some connexion with Taffy's papers on the table -- out of which James had been diverting himself by reading bits here and there, at random like.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • (Now, don't put any of your squinting constructions on this, or have any clishmaclaver about it among our acquaintances.)

    The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham Robert Burns 1777

  • "Well, we'd just had a wee blether on the universal nature of brotherly love, when a clishmaclaver broke out, over by your kiln.

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005

  • "He sat rolled up in the corner like a hedgehog, all through the clishmaclaver.

    Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992

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