Word.ws English Dictionary

cleep

cleep is the alternative form of clepe.

Meaning of clepe

Verb

clepe (third-person singular simple present clepes, present participle cleping, simple past cleped or clept, past participle cleped or clept or ycleped or yclept)

  1. (archaic, dialectal, intransitive) To give a call; cry out; appeal.
  2. (archaic, dialectal, transitive) To call; call upon; cry out to.
  3. (archaic, dialectal, transitive) To call to oneself; invite; summon.
  4. (archaic, dialectal, transitive) To call; call by the name of; name.
    • She clepes him king of graues, & graue for kings, / Imperious ſupreme of all mortall things.1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, lines [995–996]
    Synonyms:
    designate
  5. (dialectal, intransitive, often) To tell lies about; inform against (someone).
    • You tried to mentor someone, teach them the basics of the trade, and they ran off to clype on you.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 173
    Synonyms:
    grass
  6. (dialectal, intransitive) To be loquacious; tattle; gossip.
    Synonyms:
    blab

See all 8 meanings of clepe

Questions about cleep

What is cleep the alternative form of?
Cleep is the alternative form of clepe.

Words near cleep in the dictionary

  1. cleeker
  2. cleekers
  3. cleeking
  4. cleeks
  5. Cleenewerck
  6. cleep
  7. cleeping
  8. cleer
  9. cleered
  10. cleerer
  11. cleerest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cleep (page history and authors); clepe (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cleep.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cleep. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.