cly

C3L1Y4

verb

To seize; to steal.

UncommonScrabble 8
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbcly (third-person singular simple present clies, present participle clying, simple past and past participle clied)

present singular third person clies · participle present clying · participle past clied · past clied

  1. obsoleteslangtransitiveTo seize; to steal.

    Wapping thou I know does love, / Else the ruffin cly the mort; / From thy stampers then remove, / Thy drawers, and let's prig in sport.

    1707, “The Maunder's Praise of his Strowling Mort”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896, page 34
nouncly (plural clies)

plural clies

  1. obsoleteslangA person's pocket.

Origin

Probably related to claw (compare Low German kleien, klaien (“to claw, scratch, grasp, seize”), dialectal German klauen, kläuen, kleuen (“to steal”), German klauen (“to steal, rip off”)). Alternatively referred by some to Dutch kleed (“a garment”); "to fake a cly" was to take a garment.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with cly

byimybuyhighywhyreplyjJulytryapplysupplyhieyeguyfidiflyskynearbykyspysi
All rhymes →

Sounds the same

CleyCley
Cite this entry
APA

cly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cly

MLA

“cly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cly. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cly.

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