cleché

adjective

Having ends which flare out (like a cross patté) before tapering back to a point (urdé).

Meanings

adjectivecleché (not comparable)

alternative clechée · alternative cléché · alternative cléchée · alternative clechy

  1. not comparablegovernmentHaving ends which flare out (like a cross patté) before tapering back to a point (urdé).

    Cross OF TOULOUSE (cross clechy, voided and botonny)

    1974, The Coat of Arms
    3 more examples

    Argent, a cross clechée sable — Sir Thomas BANASTER, K.G., ob. 2° Ric. II. (as depicted upon his stall-plate at Windsor, elsewhere blazoned, Argent, a cross patty pointed sable). Or, on a mount between two lesser ones vert a lamb sable, holding with the dexter forefoot a banner ermine charged with a cross clechée gules—GROSE, Surrey (1756).

    1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 162

    […] and of a cross cleché voided and pometté as in the arms of Cawston (Fig. 162).

    1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopaedia of Armory, London: T.C.; & E.C. Jack, page 86

    (10) — patee : cross clechy, i.e. with the ends of the arms pointed, […]

    1994, L. A. J. R. Houwen, The Deidis of Armorie: A Heraldic Treatise and Bestiary, page 213
  2. not comparablegovernmentCharged with another bearing of the same figure and of the colour of the field so that only a narrow border of the first bearing remains visible; voided.

    […] our miniatures of c. 1375 or after, namely, the Christ Enthroned of the Fitzwarin Psalter. The background 'prints' formed in the interspaces crosses clechy (i.e. of mascles). This point is interesting if it is considered in relation to the mascles[…]

    1955, Ernest William Tristram, English Wall Painting of the Fourteenth Century, page 44
    1 more example

    Cross cléchée (voided Greek cross formed of four sans-serif L's by closing ends. Three roundels (2 + 1) end each arm. Lys in each angle. PIECE-DE-XXX (pellet, on Lyon coins; engraver's différent, on Metz) DENIERS- Individual punches for all elements; dentilated borders.

    1976, Eric P. Newman, Studies on Money in Early America, page 54

Origin

  1. Frenchcléché
  2. Englishcleché

From French cléché, from clé.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

cleché. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clech%C3%A9

MLA

“cleché.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clech%C3%A9. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cleché,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clech%C3%A9.

Source: cleché on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.