Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Alert and quick to respond.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
cleg . - Quick or perception or apprehension; acute; clever; sharp.—
- Nimble; active; lively.
- Easily moved; slippery.
- 4. Keen-edged; sharp: applied to things, as to a knife.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Scot. Quick of perception; alert; sharp.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb regional To
glance . - noun regional A
look orglance . - noun Alternative form of
cleg .
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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Scots Language Quiz Do you know your dook from your gleg?
Robert Burns 250th Anniversary Quiz The Nag 2009
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'Ay, Miss Shirley, there's a gleg light i' your een sometimes which betrays you.
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Under his tuition, and being moreover, like Cuddie Headrigg, "gleg at the uptak," I made rapid progress in knowledge.
Under the Dragon Flag My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War James Allan
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"I said the good-wife was gleg; I'm just as gleg myself."
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro
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Antony Standish could (but didn't) boast of a 'Varsity education, and he prided himself on his smartness, but he was far from being "gleg at the uptak', "as the Scots say, and his powers of observation and deduction assuredly would not have qualified him for a position as a
Bandit Love Juanita Savage
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This annoyed me, I confess, and John Splendid was gleg enough to see it
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro
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They might be sturdy, the dogs, valorous too, for there's no denying the truth, and they were gleg, gleg with the target in fending, but, man, I found them mighty simple to the feint and lunge of Alasdair Mor!
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro
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"You're not very gleg at some things, Elrigmore," he said, smiling.
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro
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"A'm no 'sae gleg on the subject o' sin as some fowk I ken."
St. Cuthbert's Robert E. Knowles
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The Provost's a gleg man, but he's not so gleg as his wife.
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro
hernesheir commented on the word gleg
Cf. the Scots term gleg-eyed; sharp-sighted.
June 14, 2011