cley

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

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"

• cleystaff

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

cley (plural cleys)

1. Alternative spelling of clay.

• Cely, cyle

From Old English clǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *klaij.

• clai, clay, claye, clei, cleiȝ, cleye

• IPA^(key): /klæi̯/

cley (uncountable)

1. Clay, plaster, or earth resembling it.
2. Any earth or soil
3. Something of little value or import.

• cleyed
• cleyen
• cleyere
• cleyye

• English: clay, cley
• Scots: cley
• Yola: cley

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

From Old French cloie.

• claye, clei

• IPA^(key): /ˈklæi̯(ə)/

cley (plural cleys)

1. A frame composed of planks crossed together.

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

From Middle English cley, from Old English clǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *klaij.

• IPA^(key): /kleː/

cley

1. clay
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 8, page 86:

     Zim dellen harnothès w'aar nize ee reed cley;

     Some digging earth-nuts with their noses in red clay;

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 86