Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. Archaic To call; name.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To give a call; cry out; appeal.
- To call; call upon; cry out to.
- To call to one's self; invite; summon.
- To call by the name of; name.
- n. A cry; an appeal; a call.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive, archaic or dialectal To give a call; cry out; appeal.
- v. transitive, archaic or dialectal To call; call upon; cry out to.
- v. transitive, archaic or dialectal To call to one's self; invite; summon.
- v. transitive, archaic or dialectal To call; call by the name of; name.
- v. intransitive (often with on) To tell lies about; inform against (someone).
- v. intransitive To be loquacious; tattle; gossip.
- v. transitive To report; relate; tell.
- n. A cry; an appeal; a call.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To call, or name.
- v. obsolete To make appeal; to cry out.
Etymologies
- From Middle English clepen, clepien, from Old English cleopian, clipian ("to speak, cry out, call, summon, invoke, cry to, implore"), from Proto-Germanic *klipōnan (“to ring, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *gal- (“to sound”). Cognate with Old Frisian klippa, kleppa ("to ring"), Dutch kleppen ("to toll, chatter"), Middle Low German kleppen ("to strike, sound"), Middle Low German kleperen ("to rattle"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English clepen, from Old English cleopian, to cry out. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And than he leet clepe in alle the lordes, that he made voyden first out of his chambre; and there he schewed me 4, that weren grete lordes in the contree, that tolden me of my contree, and of many othere Cristene contrees, als wel as thei had ben of the same contree: and thei spak Frensche righte wel; and the Sowdan also, where of I had gret marvaylle.”
“Apostles, and was clept Julian, and was made bisschoppe: and this is the same Julyan, that men clepe to for gede herberghgage; for oure Lord herberwed with him, in his hows.”
“And some putten wax in oyle of the wode of the fruyt of bawme, and seyn that it is bawme: and sume destyllen clowes of gylofre and of spykenard of Spayne and of othere spices, that ben well smellynge; and the lykour that gothe out there of, thei clepe it bawme: and thei wenen, that thei han bawme; and thei have non.”
“The first statute was, that thei scholde beleeven and obeyen in God inmortalle, that is allemyghty, that wolde casten hem out of servage; and at alle tymes clepe to him for help, in tyme of nede.”
“For men werein wont for to clepe that place, the feld of Damasce; because that it was in the lordschipe of Damask.”
“In that valley is a field, where men draw out of the earth a thing that men clepe cambile, and they eat it instead of spices, and they bear it to sell.”
“And there is a full fair vale and a fructuous; and there is a fair city and a good that men clepe”
“And in the midst of the vale is a little river that men clepe TORRENS”
“From thence go men to Samaria that men clepe now Sebast; and that is the chief city of that country, and it sits between the hill of Aygnes as Jerusalem doth.”
“And for the name of the isle, they clepe it Tracodon.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘clepe’.
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WWF WTF?
Ever play "Words With Friends" with someone and they throw down some strange, unlikely group of letters that makes even the most mild and squeaky clean tongued person say "whiskey tango foxtrot"? ...
oorie, sangar, merl, cwm, doum, weir, jura, invar, lawine, tapa, waw, shog and 376 more...
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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O! Timballo
for the same
tea-poy, pooking fork, ait, eyot, quodlibet, milk leg, tussie-mussie, calash, gueules, caitiff, bindery, demi-rep and 224 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Archaic
Because they just don't make 'em like they used to.
comeling, circuition, assentment, advisement, accompts, apertness, larum, soothfastness, deperdition, marish, covin, tinct and 166 more...
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Words that make you go hmmmm...
Interesting words you probably won't hear in your day-to-day.
maxwell, mooncalf, quagga, glaikit, musquash, lingam, haruspex, qindarka, chthonic, ipomoea, azimuthal, valuta and 304 more...
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kevinofnine's Words
sesquipedalian, pentasyllabic, sobriquet, epistemic, ameliorate, quibble, autological, magniloquent, circumlocutious, quintillion, bookish, tantamount and 139 more...
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Names in General.
Both derogatory and conciliatory.
coxcomb, hepcat, macaroni, buck, scuzzbucket, daddy-o, beatnik, ducky, honky, ninnyhammer, bloke, blighter and 44 more...
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Obsolete or seldom used Verbs (someti...
They were (are) better as verbs
agend, absume, incarn, secern, suade, niggle, resplend, perfuse, circumincess, dehisce, inhere, clepe and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for clepe.

whichbe To name; to call. (from Phrontistery) May 25, 2008