Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A number one golf iron, having very little loft to the club face.
- noun A number four wood.
- noun Scots A large hook, such as one used to hang a pot over a fire.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun See
cleik .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A large hook or crook, as for a pot over a fire; specif., an iron-headed golf club with a straight, narrow face and a long shaft.
- noun Scot. Act of cleeking; a clutch.
- transitive verb To seize; clutch; snatch; catch; pluck.
- transitive verb To catch or draw out with a cleek, as a fish; to hook.
- transitive verb To hook or link (together); hence, to marry.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A large hook.
- noun golf, dated A metal headed
golf club with little loft. Equivalent to a one or two iron a modern set of clubs.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But one finds by long experience that the cleek is the best and most reliable club for use in all these difficult circumstances.
The Complete Golfer Harry Vardon 1903
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Some men fancy one type, and some another, and each of them obtains approximately the same result from his own selection, but it is natural that a driving cleek, which is specially designed for obtaining length, having a fairly straight face and plenty of weight, will generally deliver the ball further than those which are more lofted and lighter.
The Complete Golfer Harry Vardon 1903
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There is another shot with the cleek which is more difficult than that we have just been discussing, one which it will take many weeks of arduous practice to master, but which, in my opinion, is one of the most valuable and telling shots in golf, and that is the push which is a half shot.
The Complete Golfer Harry Vardon 1903
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I thought Rahm was apologizing to the retards for comparing them to liberals … did I have that wrong? cleek says:
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I hope the snippets of hardball rhetoric we are starting to hear from the White House and a few members of the Democratic caucus are only a glimpse of things to come. cleek says:
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Sequels to popular franchises tend to open stronger than stand alone set pieces. cleek says:
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I think some states (MA?) have a system like this already. cleek Says:
Matthew Yglesias » The Constitutionality of the Filibuster 2010
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Why are the Republicans so intent on giving our enemies exactly what they really, really want? cleek says:
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I shudder to think thinking about Shudder to Think. cleek » Something To Du says:
Matthew Yglesias » Everything Feels Like a Copy of a Copy of a Copy 2010
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If this was written by a Liberal the screams of antisemitism would be coming from the right if similar statements were made. cleek Says:
trivet commented on the word cleek
one iron, in old golf lingo
April 16, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word cleek
For a minute, I thought you meant clique. I've never heard of a cleek!
April 16, 2007
reesetee commented on the word cleek
Love it!
April 16, 2007
knitandpurl commented on the word cleek
David Crystal writes: "And I hadn't realized that classic crooks have hooks at both ends, one larger than the other. One is large enough to catch hold of a sheep's neck; the other end is smaller, for catching hold of the hind foot. He called it a 'leg cleek." (pp 8-9)
And then: "It seems to have been a Scottish word originally, in the fifteenth century. A hook for catching hold of something, or pulling something, or hanging something up. Fishermen used it a lot. And then it turned up again in the nineteenth century, in gold, referring to a type of club." (p 9)
And: "In parts of Scotland, to this day, if someone calls you cleeky, they mean you're grasping, captious." (p 9)
And: "And in the jazz era it turned up again, meaning a wet blanket at a party, a party-pooper. Beatniks in the US used it in the 1960s for any sad or melancholy person." (p 9)
If you can't tell, I just started reading By Hook or By Crook by David Crystal, and am loving it so far.
December 14, 2008