Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLING'ING, ppr.

Adhering closely; sticking to; winding round and holding to.

CLING'STONE, n. [cling and stone.]

A variety of peach whose pulp adheres closely to the stone.

CLING'Y, a.

Apt to cling; adhesive.

CLIN'IC, or CLIN'IC-AL, a. [Gr. κλινικος, from κλινη, a bed, from κλινω, to recline. See Lean.]

In a general sense, pertaining to a bed. A clinical lecture is a discourse delivered at the bedside of the sick, or from notes taken at the bedside, by a physician, with a view to practical instruction in the healing art. Clinical medicine is the practice of medicine on patients in bed, or in hospitals. A clinical convert is a convert on his death bed. Anciently persons receiving baptism on their death beds were called clinics. – Coxe. Encyc. Taylor.

CLIN'IC, n.

One confined to the bed by sickness.

CLIN'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In a clinical manner; by the bed-side.

CLINK, n.

A sharp sound made by the collision of small sonorous bodies. Spenser, according to Johnson, uses the word for a knocker.

CLINK, v.t. [Sw. klinga; Dan. klinger, klinker; D. klinken; G. klingen. This seems to be a dialectical orthography of clang, clank, L. clango, and if n is not radical, they coincide with clack, click, with the radical sense, to strike.]

To ring or jingle; to utter or make a small sharp sound, or a succession of such sounds, as by striking small metallic or other sonorous bodies together. – Prior. Gay.

CLINK'ING, ppr.

Making a small sharp sound, or succession of sounds.

CLINK'STONE, n. [clink and stone, from its sonorousness. See Phonolite.]

A mineral which has a slaty structure, and is generally divisible into tabular masses, usually thick, sometimes thin like those of argillite. The cross fracture is commonly splintery. Its colors are dark greenish gray, yellowish, bluish, or ash gray; and it is usually translucent at the edges, sometimes opake. It occurs in extensive masses, often composed of columnar or tabular distinct concretions, more or less regular. It is usually found among secondary rocks; sometimes resting on basalt, and covered by greenstone. – Cleaveland.

CLI-NOM'E-TER, n. [Gr. κλινω, to lean, and μετρον, measure.]

An instrument for measuring the dip of mineral strata. – Ure.

CLIN-O-MET'RIC-AL, a.

Performed by a clinometer.

CLINQ'UANT, a. [Fr.]

Dressed in tinsel finery. [Not English.] – Shak.

CLINQ'UANT, n. [Fr.]

Tinsel; false glitter.

CLI'O, n.

In mythology, the muse who presided over history.

CLI-O-SOPH'IC, a. [Gr. Κλειω, one of the muses, and σοφος.]

A term used to distinguish a literary society.

CLIP, n.

1. 1. A blow or stroke with the hand; as, he hit him a clip. – New England.
2. An embrace; that is, a throwing the arms round. – Sidney.
3. A sheep-shearing.

CLIP, v.t. [Sax. clypan; Dan. klipper; Sw. klippa. The sense seems to be, to strike, to cut off by a sudden stroke. The Danish word signifies not only to cut off with scissors, but to wink or twinkle with the eyes. In our popular dialect, a clip is a blow or stroke; as, to hit one a clip. Cut is used in a like sense. The radical sense then is, to strike or drive with a sudden effort, thrust or spring.]

1. To cut off with shears or scissors; to separate by a sudden stroke; especially to cut off the ends or sides of a thing, to make it shorter or narrower, in distinction from shaving and paring, which are performed by rubbing the instrument close to the thing shaved; as, to clip the hair; to clip wings. But love had clipped his wings and cut him short. – Dryden.
2. To diminish coin by paring the edge. – Locke.
3. To curtail; to cut short. – Addison.
4. To confine, limit, restrain, or hold; to hug. [Little used.] – Shak. To clip it, is a vulgar phrase in New England for to run with speed. So cut is used; cut on, run fast. This seems to be the meaning of Dryden: Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed, / And with her eagerness the quarry missed, / Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind. This sense would seem to be allied to that of leap.

CLIP'PED, or CLIPT, pp.

Cut off; cut short; curtailed; diminished by paring.

CLIP'PER, n.

One who clips; especially one who cuts off the edges of coin. Addison.

CLIP'PING, n.

1. The act of cutting off, curtailing or diminishing.
2. That which is clipped off; a piece separated by clipping. – Locke.

CLIP'PING, ppr.

Cutting off or shortening with shears or scissors; diminishing coin by paring off the edges; curtailing.

CLIQUE, n. [cleck; Fr.]

A party.

CLIV'ERS, n.

A plant, the Galium aparine; called also goose-grass, or hairiff. It has a square, rough, jointed stem; the joints hairy at the base; with eight or ten narrow leaves at each joint. – Encyc. Fam. of Plants.

CLIV'I-TY, n. [L. clivus.]

A declivity.