clift

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See also: Clift

English

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Etymology

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Variant form of cliff, influenced by cleft.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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clift (plural clifts)

  1. (obsolete) A cliff. [14th–19th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. [], London: [] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      So downe he fell, as an huge rockie clift, / Whose false foundation waues haue washt away [...].
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 91:
      so broad is the bay here, we could scarce perceive the great high clifts on the other side: by them we Anchored that night and called them Riccards Cliftes.

Derived terms

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old English ġeclyft, from Proto-Germanic *kluftiz; equivalent to cleven +‎ -th.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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clift (plural cliftes)

  1. A cleft; a fission, fissure, or split in something.
  2. A slash wound; an injury from an instance of slicing, cleaving, rupturing or cutting.
  3. The fork in one's legs or behind; a bodily cleft.
  4. (rare) A cliff or bank.
  5. (rare) A slicing for surgical reasons.
  6. (rare) A shard or piece of something.

Descendants

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  • English: cleft
  • Scots: clift

References

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