clepe

American  

[kleep] / klip /

verb (used with object)

Archaic.

cleped, clept, ycleped, yclept, cleping

1. to call; name (now chiefly in the past participle as ycleped oryclept ).

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clepe British  

/ kliːp /

verb

1. archaic (tr) to call by the name of

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Etymology

Origin of clepe

First recorded before 900; Middle English clepen, Old English cleopian, variant of clipian; akin to Middle Low German kleperen “to rattle”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

clepe cleped clept ycleped yclept

There dwell Saracens and another manner of folk, that men clepe Cordynes. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

From thence men go by sea toward Ind the more to a city, that men clepe Sarche, that is a fair city and a good. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

Wherefore I say you, in passing by the land of Cathay toward the high Ind and toward Bacharia, men pass by a kingdom that men clepe Caldilhe, that is a full fair country.

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

Also in that country there be beasts taught of men to go into waters, into rivers and into deep stanks for to take fish; the which beast is but little, and men clepe them loirs. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

In that lake grow reeds, that be canes, that they clepe Thaby, that be thirty fathoms long; and of these canes men make fair houses. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

Thanne comth the sinne of worldly sorwe, swich as is cleped tristicia, that sleeth man, as seint Paul seith.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen

Here begynneth a lyttell Treatise cleped La Conusauce D'Amours. imp. by Pynson.

From Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall

And because that Ninus performed it, he cleped it Nineveh after his own name. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

This faire Maiden cleped is Criseide, douhter of Crisis, Which was that time in special Of thilke temple principal, Wher Phebus hadde his sacrifice, So was it wel the more vice.

From Confessio Amantis, or, Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)

This signe of Capricorne is also cleped the Tropik of Winter, for thanne byginneth the sonne to come agayn to us-ward.”

From Astronomical Lore in Chaucer by Grimm, Florence M.

And in the tomb of Saint John is nought but manna, that is clept angels' meat.

From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 19 — Travel and Adventure by Hammerton, John Alexander, Sir

And, about the point of the great compass that is clept the centre, be made another little compass. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

And fast beside is another isle, that is clept Betemga, that is a good isle and a plenteous. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

The second lineage is clept Tanghot, the third Eurache, the fourth Valair, the fifth Semoche, the sixth Megly, the seventh Coboghe.

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

And the best city of that country is clept Khorasan, and of that city beareth the country his name. 

From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

Come thou goddess, fair and free, In Heaven ycleped Euphroysine, And by men, heart-easing Mirth.

From Dorothy's Tour by Raymond, Evelyn

Pleasant is even the yolk of the Cormorant—in the north of England ycleped the Scarth, and in the Lowlands of Scotland the Black Byuter.

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by Wilson, John Lyde

Rhizotome, with the soft coat of a field tortoise, alias ycleped a mole, was making himself a velvet purse.

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 4 by Motteux, Peter Anthony

Upon a winged Horse, ycleped Pegasus, Swift as the fiery Racers of the Sun,—I fly—I fly—See how I mount, and cut the liquid Sky.

From The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume III by Summers, Montague

There is to be a thing on Tuesday ycleped a national fête.

From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 2 With His Letters and Journals by Moore, Thomas

A tenured Pat, my name’s Tom Brady; Foes have oft yclept me shady.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 19, 2020

First comith that pritty knight Sir Robert, the Taylor yclept, and feigneth to bee Launcelot, and then harde after hym ye yongge esquirt Robert a Wagner, yt callith himselfe Prince Valiant.

From Time Magazine Archive

His secretary, yclept Lemoyne Jones in the effete East, became plain Lem Jones as soon as he was west of the mountains.

From Time Magazine Archive

From this they are rescued by an extraordinary swami-plus-demigod, yclept King Laions, who removes them to the island of Telepylus—a sort of Marie Correllian Abbey of Theleme—where they are finally made to cure themselves.

From Time Magazine Archive

On one of these our cow gun, yclept "Wearie Willie," was hauled; it took fifty-six oxen to get him up there.

From A Yeoman's Letters Third Edition by Ross, P. T.