different between clem vs cley

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?m

Etymology 1

Compare clam (“to clog”), or German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, adhere (to a surface)”), Icelandic klmbra, English clamp.

Verb

clem (third-person singular simple present clems, present participle clemming, simple past and past participle clemmed)

1. (Britain, dialect, transitive or intransitive) To be hungry; starve.
   • 1889, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Between Two Loves, Ch. VI, p. 110:

     " […] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!"

2. To stick, adhere.

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 2

Possibly from clementine, a small round citrus fruit.

Noun

clem (plural clems)

1. (Tyneside, vulgar, slang) A testicle.

References

• clem in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• ECML

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English cle, clea, from Old English cl?a (“claw”) (where the oblique forms > English claw).

Noun

cley (plural cleys)

1. (obsolete) A claw.
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:

     "But that more heavy Birds are otherwise provided for defence, namely either by Spurs that grow on their Legs, or by the strength and sharpness of some single cley in their Foot; as I have observed in the Cassoware or Emeu"

Derived terms

• cleystaff

Etymology 2

From Middle English cley, from Old English cl?? (“clay”).

Noun

cley (plural cleys)

1. Alternative spelling of clay

Anagrams

• Cely, cyle

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English cl??, from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gloh?iyós.

Alternative forms

• clei, clay, clai, clei?, cleye, claye

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?i?/

Noun

cley (uncountable)

2. clay, plaster, or earth like clay.
3. Any earth or terrain; something of little value or import.

Related terms

• cleyed
• cleyen
• cleyere
• cleyye

Descendants

• English: clay, cley
• Scots: cley

References

• “clei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-1.

Etymology 2

From Old French cloie.

Alternative forms

• clei, claye

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kl?i?(?)/

Noun

cley (plural cleys)

2. A frame composed of planks crossed together.

References

• “clei(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-1.