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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CLEEK, CLICK, Cleik, Kleek, Kliek, Cleeque, n.¹ Also dim. cleeky, clickie(-y). [klik Sc., but I.Sc., Abd., Gall. and Dmf. + klɪk]

1. (1) A hook or crook in gen., e.g. such as is used for hanging meat, a lamp, etc., from the ceiling, or suspending a pot over the fire. Edm. Gl. (1866) gives the form kliek for Sh. Gen.Sc.Sh.(D) 1886 “G. Temple” Britta 19:
On the middle of the floor, built up on stones, a bright peat fire was burning, and above it a large cauldron hung on a cleik attached to one of the beams of the roof.Hdg. 1844 J. Miller Lamp of Lothian iii. i.:
Towards the west end of the bridge, at the head of the arch, on the south side, there is a strong iron cleek, from which it was wont to hang malefactors.Lnk. 1724 W. Grossart Shotts (1880) 65:
To James Young, smith, for six cleeks.

Hence clickett, hooked, having a crook.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 54–55:
Children, wherever he went, were very fond of him, and hung on by his clickett staff and coat tails.

(2) A walking-stick with a crook. Also used attrib.Sc. 1820 Blackwood's Mag. (Nov.) 201:
Frae that day to this, my guid aik cleeky has never mair been heard tell o'.Kcb. 1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xxv.:
This “kent,” or great staff was more than two yards long and prodigiously stout, with a pike at the farther end, and a “clickie” handle, made closer at the lower part for catching sheep by the leg.

Phr.: airt o' the clicky, see Airt, n.², 2.

(3) “The hooked piece of iron used by children to guide their hoop” (Edb.¹, Lnk.³ 1936).

(4) A salmon gaff (Bnff.², Abd.¹⁹, Fif.¹, Lnk.³ 1937).m.Sc. 1917 J. Buchan Poems 44:
The pooches o' their moleskin breeks Contained unlawfu' things like cleeks, For folk that fish to fill their wame Are no fasteedious at the game.Rxb. 1868 Hawick Advertiser (7 March) 3/3:
When he appeared, a cleek and a fishing lantern were found in his possession.

(5) A muck-rake (Bnff.², Abd.⁹ 1937); a rake in gen., a fire rake. Used fig. in comb. with muck in Bch. quot. = dirty hands, this use prob. arising through some confusion with Cleuk, n.¹ (2), a hand.Sc. 1903 Confectionery & Baking Craft (March 1947) 119:
"Clicks" are used to rake the clinkers off the chaffer.Abd. 1906 J. Christie in Bnffsh. Jnl. (3 July) 3:
The dung wi' cleeks was put in heaps.Bch. 1928 (per Abd.¹⁵):
Yon wifie wis the foolest ye ever saw, for aifter milkin the kye she inte the makkin o' wir pottage on-washen her sharny muck-cleeks.

(6) “A form of trip in wrestling” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). For ex., see Rxb. quot. s.v. Flaip, 1. Also found in n.Eng. dial. in form click (E.D.D.).

(7) “The supply of hutches in the pit, interference with which is known as stegging the cleek” (Edb.⁶ 1943); (see also quot.).Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 18:
In former times the baskets in which the coal was drawn up the shaft were attached to the rope by a cleek, and the cleek in course of time came to mean the whole organisation for raising the coal from a colliery. Hence stopping the cleek . . . i.e. causing an interruption of the output of the coal.Gsw. 1842 Children in Mines Report (2) 356:
The putter need not go down before six o' clock, when the "cleet" [sic] or engine starts.

(8) “A small catch designed to fall into the notch of a wheel” (Sc. 1790 Grose Gl., MS. Add. (see E.D.D. s.v. click, n.¹); the latch of a door or gate or of a window shutter (Cai.⁷, Fif.¹⁰ 1937).Ags. 1703 Dun Kirk-Session Papers in V. Jacob Lairds of Dun (1931) 6:
Eight iron Cleiks for the wiers [of the windows] is five shill. six pennies.Per. 1898 E.D.D.:
Lift the cleek an' step yer wyes ben.

(9) “A windle (shaped something like a joiner's boring brace) used for twisting straw-ropes or ‘sookans'” (Ork. 1929 Marw., kleek).

(10) A hold, grasp, clutch.Sc. 1830 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) II. 349:
What think ye . . . o' thir pair o' boot-hooks? Gin I could get a cleek o' the bane by ane o' the vertebrae, I might hoise it gently up, by slaw degrees.Ork.(D) 1880 Dennison Orcad. Sk. Bk. 39:
Andro . . . coor'd doon i' mortal f'are o' gettin' a cleeque fae the g'aist.

(11) “An inclination to trick; a fraudulent disposition” (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 25; Abd.¹⁹ 1930); a trick. Known to Bnff.² 1937.Sc. 1704 Morison Decisions 15933:
She expressly said, she believed there was a cleick in it.Bnff. 1924 “Knoweheid” in Swatches o' Hamespun 82:
An' warnt them weel O' Sawtan's cleik, an' the deil's ain skeel.Ags. 1821 D. Shaw Humorous Songs and Poems 7:
In a' my schemes an' tricks an' cleeks, They're aye a plague to me, man.Fif. 1812 W. Ranken Poems 32:
Marching, wheeling, lefting, righting, Every cleek o' war they kent.

(12) A hook used in drawing the yarn in a jacquard loom (Ayr. 1957); a kind of crochet hook used in the making of gloves, rugs, etc. Hence adj. cleeky, made with a cleek.Bnff. 1865 R. Sim Old Keith 138:
It [a crochet hook] is only a showy improvement on the primitive and simple brass instrument with which herd boys and girls and other youngsters in former days to manufacture the comfortable piece of dress which they called very appropriately "Cleeky mittans".

(13) A salmon net set in a curve in a river (see quot.). Fif. 1899 Session Cases (1898-9) 651:
The toot and haull net is attached near its outer end to an anchor in the river-bed. From the anchor the net is turned back towards the shore for about 18 or 20 yards, forming what is called the 'hook' or 'cleek'.

(14) An iron-headed golf-club used to play short strokes or to get the ball out of rough ground. Gen.Sc., obsol. Hence combs. cleek-driving, -maker, -putting, -shot, -stroke. Sc. 1847 R. Chambers Poet. Remains (1883) 59-61:
One glorious cleek-stroke from the sand. . . . Dread sound of cleeks, which ever fall in vain.Sc. 1887 R. Chambers Golfing 19:
The head of the cleek, unlike that of the sand-iron, is straight in the face, and slopes backward. Sc. 1891 J. G. McPherson Golf & Golfers 8, 24-5:
His brother's cleek-driving was brilliant . . . The approach shot which is between the full cleek shot and the wrist shot . . . The almost universal substitution of cleek-putting for the use of the wooden putter.Fif. 1857 H. B. Farnie Golfer's Manual 20:
The cleek or click . . . is also an iron club. but lighter than either of the others. It is used chiefly for driving the ball out of rough ground when elevation is not so much an object, and when no impediments surround and obstruct the lie which would demand a heavier club.

(15) A boyfriend or girlfriend (cleek Sh., Cai., Abd.; click Bnff., Edb., Gsw., Ayr., Uls. 2000s). Abd. 1980s:
Hiv ye gotten a cleek yet? Fa's your click?wm.Sc. 1979 Robin Jenkins Fergus Lamont 180:
'That big man in the kilt's awfully interested in Glaikit Mary,' cried one of the girls 'Maybe he wants her for a click,' said another.Gsw. 1985 Michael Munro The Patter 17:
click Someone who has succeeded in 'getting off with' a member of the opposite sex may be said to have got a click: 'The disco was rubbish. The only one that got a click was wee Susan.'Gsw. 1991 Anna Blair More Tea at Miss Cranston's 64:
...ever the Art Galleries was a great place for girls and fellas walkin', see' if y'could get off...gettin' a 'lumber' or ...gettin' a 'click' some of them used to call it.

2. Plural uses: (1) “A cramp in the legs, to which horses are subject; so denominated, because it cleiks, or as it were hooks up, their hinder-legs” (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Bnff.² 1937, rare), string-halt. See cleekups under 3.

(2) Lumbago (ellipt. for cleek-i'-the-back; see 3 (5) below).Rxb. 1820 A.M. in Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. (1912) 48:
Wi' cramps and cleeks may he be pest, An' o' diseases be a nest.

3. Phrases and combs.: (1) cleek-airm, “an artificial arm with a hook” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); (2) cleek anchor, a small anchor (Cai.⁷, Kcb.⁹ 1937); (3) cleek-coal, “coal as it comes from the pit” (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 18; Edb.⁶ 1943); cf. 1 (7) above; (4) click-iron, a golf cleek; (5) cleek-i'-the-back, “lubago or rheumatism” (Rxb. (Teviotdale) 1825 Jam.²; 1923 Watson W.-B.); †(6) cleeksman, “in former times the person who unhooked the baskets of coal at the pithead” (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 19); (7) click spavin, = (8); (8) cleekups, “stringhalt; a twitching disease in the hind legs of a horse or ass” (Uls. 1880 W. H. Patterson Gl. Ant. and Dwn.); also used of persons with a jerky movement of the legs in walking; (9) free cleek, “the right of a miner to get hutches without waiting his turn or ben” (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 30); see 1 (7).(2) Kcb. 1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders i.:
I got into the shallow water, taking the little cleek anchor ashore.(4) Fif. 1842 in Rules of Golf (ed. C. B. Clapcott 1935) 78–79:
A ball . . . which requires to be played with a heavy or click-iron . . . shall not be reckoned on the putting-green, nor entitled to the privilege of lifting loose impediments.(5) Slk. c.1900 A. J. Paterson Mist from Yarrow 149:
The cleik in my back wudna let me lie still.(6) Lnk. 1757 Session Papers, Petition R. Bogle (13 June) 18:
He has been Cleeksman at the Pursuer's Coal-works for some Years past. Lnk. 1769 Session Papers, Farie v. MacVicar Contract 5:
The cleeksman of the coal-works at Rutherglen, and for the most part, over all that country, keeps the cleek and accompt of the colliers daily out-put of coals, and the sales, and the grieve comes at night, and takes up that accompt; and that where coals are drawn by windlasses, the custom is, that the man at one end of the windlass, keeps the accompt of out-put and sales, and the man at the other end of the windlass, applies the cleek for drawing out the coals.(7) w.Dmf. 1920 J. L. Waugh Heroes in Homespun 10:
Donald was certainly trotting, but he had a “click spavin,” which made his movement so jerky . . . that it gave me the hiccough.(8) Uls.³ 1930:
“He (horse or man) has the cleekups.” (Always used with the definite article.)