ycleped

Y4C3L1E1P3E1D2

A form of yclept — Called (by a certain name), named.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

adjective
  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of yclept.

    His barge ycleped was the Maudelayne.

    His ship was called the Maudelayne.

    a. 1394, Geoffrey Chaucer, “General Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020, line 410
    5 more examples

    There is a tall long-sided Dame, / (But wondrous light) ycleped Fame, / That like a thin Camelion Bourds / He[r] self on Air, and eats her words: […]

    1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 106

    Sometimes in consequence of some flagrant villany, he would abscond from the garrison, […] squatting himself down on the edge of a pond catching fish for hours together, and bearing no little resemblance to that notable bird ycleped the Mud-poke.

    1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Shewing How Profound Secrets are Strangely Brought to Light; […]”, in A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC, book VI, page 86

    The event is described in the metrical history of Rouen, composed by a minstrel ycleped Poirier, the limper.

    1820, Dawson Turner, “Letter X. Early Pointed Architecture—Cathedral—Episcopal Palace”, in Account of a Tour in Normandy; […], volume I, London: […] [C. Sloman] for John and Arthur Arch, […], →OCLC, footnote †, page 163

    We by no means mean to say that Lady Anne's happy and pleasant little party would not have received a new impetus if a Moore, a Bulwer, a Hook, or those monopolists of beauty and wit, Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Norton, or those daughters of Apollo, ycleped Mitford, Pardoe, and Strickland had been mingled with her "blue spirits and grey;" but we do mean to say that they were very happy without them, and that much, perhaps all, of the "feast of reason and the flow of soul," for which these distinguished individuals are loved, and sought, and honoured, would have been lost in the melée of dancing, singing, chattering, and flirting, to which the major part of the visitants were devoted.

    1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 252–253

    The damsel, ycleped Louisa, made rather a shame-faced obeisance, and her old grandmother went on to inform me that she had only lately been forgiven by the overseer for an attempt to run away from the plantation.

    1863, Frances Anne Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, →OCLC, page 176
verb
  1. participlepastpast participle of clepe

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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