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

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

And men clepe that isle the Isle of Bragman, and some men clepe it the Land of Faith. 

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

And it casteth out of the water a thing that men clepe asphalt, also great pieces, as the greatness of an horse, every day and on all sides. 

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

And then he made many statutes and ordinances that they clepe Ysya Chan. 

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

But that is not that east that we clepe our east, on this half, where the sun riseth to us. 

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