cley
cley noun: a claw. Also the alternative spelling of clay.
Noun
cley (plural cleys)
- A claw.
- 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 Emeu1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74
Proper noun capitalized: Cley
Cley
- Ellipsis of Cley next the Sea: a coastal village and civil parish in North Norfolk district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TG0443).
Also used as
cley is also the alternative spelling of clay.
Forms of cley
| plural | cleys |
|---|
Origin of cley
From Middle English cle, clea, from Old English clēa (“claw”) (where the oblique forms > English claw).
From Middle English cley, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”).
Words formed from cley
Phrases with cley
Words that rhyme with cley
Questions about cley
- What does cley mean?
- Cley means a claw.
- What part of speech is cley?
- Cley can be a noun or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of cley?
- The plural of cley is cleys.
Words near cley in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cley (page history and authors); Cley (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “cley.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cley. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.