Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./US) a woman, a girlfriend.

1895		Bulletin 9 Feb. n.p.: Oh she’s a good iron, is my little clinah; / She’s my cobber an’ I’m ’er bloke.
1896		Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 31 Dec. 2/8: The patrons [...] were not of the most respectable class, rather the reverse: they were called mainly from the ‘pushes’ that then infected Sydney. Members of the ‘pushes’ and their ‘clinahs!’ (‘Clinahs’ [sic] is larrikin for ‘best girl’).
1897		Capricornian (Rockhampton) 6 Feb. 30/4: He had a cliner there, too, and she got the spike with me as well.
1899		W. Aus. Sun. Times 24 Sept. 7/2: He’d wing his kliner with a sock, / The toe of which contained some rock.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 25 Sept. 3/2: I never tells my ‘klina’ / She’s a little turtle dove.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Oct. 1/1: During the inky interval a well known bookmaker attempted to fondle his fiancee [and] having cuddled the wrong kleiner in the gloaming he was ‘passed one’.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Sept. 15/1: Yes, but I carn’t git no bloomin’ clinah. [Ibid.] 30 Nov. 31/2: Was surprised to find ‘clinah’ spelt that way in a recent Bulletin. I don’t know how the more endearing term ‘donah’ is spelt in the Slang Dictionary, but it is clearly identical in meaning with the German kleine, and is intended to have exactly the same sound, whereas ‘donah’ is just as clearly a vulgar perversion of ‘donna.’.
1901		Truth (Sydney) 28 July 2/7: Cribs wot’s got too many kliners / Workin, they must turn them loose, / For to keep there number even, / So Ihey don't the law abuse.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/7: As for my clyner, I’m fair fagged about ’er. She must ’ave a rat.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Jan. 1st sect. 1/1: They Say [...] That a well-known expert swimmer is opening a class for clyners only.
1914		C.J. Dennis ‘The Play’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 47/1: ’Is cliner’s push – wot’s nicknamed Capulet – / They ’as ’em set.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 17 Jan. 7/3: They Say [...] That Jimmie P. [and] Will J. have not been seen out with their klinahs .
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 6/1: You couldn’t see the blooming horizon for kleiners mince-pieing the mob from Bris.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 29 May 3/4: Mat M., the boy that loves a clina, / Who bears the charming name of Vina.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 30 Oct. 5/1: See that the blind is well down before you nestle up with the clinah.
1919		Aussie (France) X Jan. 14: Variously called by the male species ‘The Tabbie,’ ‘The Bint,’ ‘The Cliner’ and ‘The Skirt’.
1928		A.W. Upfield House of Cain 114: You lookin’ for a clinah named Austilline Thorpe?
1931		Mail (Adelaide) 30 May 9/5: For the weaker sex ‘tart’ [...] ‘sheila’ and ‘clinah’ do duty in circles that are not exactly select.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 22/2: Cliner, a girl.
1938		Western Mail (Perth) 10 Nov. 26/6: One writer claimed that eight out of 19 Australian slang words mentioned here were ‘of obvious Hebrew and Yiddish origin.’ [...] ‘cliner’, from ‘klein’.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: a cliner . . . a dame.
1963		R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 106: Cliner: a young woman.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 45: donahs were also known as cliners, from the German kleine, little; or small.