cly v.
to seize, to get, to take; to steal.
Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 86: Gerry gan, the ruffian clye thee. A torde in thy mouth, the deuyll take thee. | ||
Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck. | ||
Martin Mark-all 42: But if we spid we shall be clyd / And carried to the quirken hall. | ||
Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O2: Niggling thou (I know) dost love, else the Ruffin cly thee Mort. | Canting Song in||
Jovial Crew II i: Here, safe in our Skipper, let’s cly off our Peck, / And bowse in defiance o’ the Harman-Beck. | ||
‘The Beggars Curse’ Canting Academy (1674) 14: [as cit. 1608]. | ||
Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Cly, Haunt, Molest. | ||
Triumph of Wit 198: [as cit. 1637]. | ||
Scoundrel’s Dict. | ||
‘The Sandman’s Wedding’ in Dodsley (1826) 65: Joe sold his sand, and cly’d his cole. | ||
Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: The ruffian cly thee; the Devil take thee. | ||
Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796]. | ||
Real Life in London I 633: Fly, ye prigs, for now’s the hour, / (Tho’ boosey kids have lost their power,) / When watchful Charleys, like the Sun, / Their nightly course of duty run / Beneath the pale-faced moon; / But take this warning while ye fly, / That if you nibble, click or clye, / My sight’s so dim, I cannot see, / Unless while you the blunt tip me: / Then stay, then stay; / For I shall make this music speak, / And bring you up before the Beak, / Unless the chink’s in tune. | ||
Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 333: Our suit [...] got on pretty well — we served it out to three flatty-gories in the first week, clying upwards of a hundred couple of quid. | ||
Flash Mirror 7: Queering a Greenhorn. — Togging as a Policeman [...] Having a good eye on all yokels. Searching them as suspicious characters. Clying any thing good. | ||
Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 6 Aug. n.p.: Mr I. here counted out the ‘tin’ ($150 in gold) and Mr A. clyed it. | ||
Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: I told him it vas no go, for I vas up to slum, and vouldn’t be gammon’d, and if he vanted to cly my tin, he vould have to do the square (honest) thing and no fudge. | ||
Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 117: To cly [...] to pounce upon, snatch. | ||
, , | Sl. Dict. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) to be whipped; thus n. a whipping (see cite 1639).
Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 84: to cly the gerke, to be whypped. | ||
Groundworke of Conny-catching A2: [as cit. c.1566]. | ||
Belman of London (3rd) J3: We may happen on the Harmans, and cly the Iarke, or to the quire ken, and scowre quire crampings, and so to trymming on the chetes. | ||
Martin Mark-all 38: To Cly the Iarke, to be whipped. | ||
Gypsies Metamorphosed 4: Therefore, till [...] he be able to beate it on the hard hoofe, to the ben bowse, or the stauling Ken, to nip a Jan, and cly the iarke; ’tis thought fitt he marche in the Infants equipage. | ||
Eng. Villainies (8th edn). | Canters Dict.||
Crabtree Lectures 195: Cove. I doe not fear any Harmanbeck, or Pug, nor doe I care for Cly the Ierke. | ||
Eng. Villainies (9th edn) . | Canters Dict.||
Eng. Rogue I 48: Cly the Jerk, To be whipt. | ||
‘The Beggars Curse’ Canting Academy (1674) 14: If we heave a booth we cly the Jerk. | ||
Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] To cly the Jerk, to be Whipt. | ||
Dict. Canting Crew. | ||
Eng. Dict. | ||
Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: [...] To cly the jerk, i.e., to be whipped. | ||
Street Robberies Considered 31: Cly the Jerk, to be whipt. | ||
, , , | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. | |
Scoundrel’s Dict. 19: To be whipped – Clay the Jerk. | ||
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | ||
Pelham III 292: Stubble it, you ben, you deserve to cly the jerk for your patter. | ||
‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Vocabulum 103: May I cly the jerk at a drag; be trussed in a Kilmainham garter, and fall to the surgeons. |