gleek

[ gleek ]

/ glik /

to make a joke; jest.

Words nearby gleek

First recorded in 1540–50; origin uncertain

gleek²

[ gleek ]

/ glik /

an English card game for three persons played with a 44-card pack, popular from the 16th through the 18th century.

1525–35; < Middle French glic, perhaps < Middle Dutch gelīc like¹

In plain Gleek, his career was about to get hit with the force of a thousand grape slushies.
Glee's New Villain|Itay Hod|September 20, 2010|DAILY BEAST
By the cross of these hilts, I'll never play at gleek again, whilst I have a nose on my face: I smell the knavery of the game.
A Select Collection of Old English Plays (11 of 15)|W. Carew Hazlitt
The index of extravagance at gleek seems to have advanced alarmingly in the course of the seventeenth century.
Poeta de Tristibus: Or, the Poet's Complaint|Anonymous
To gleek is used in Shakespeare for "to make sport, to jest," &c.
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (of 3)|Thomas Percy

A metaphor taken from the game at cards called Gleek, where a gleek of knaves is three.
A Select Collection of Old English Plays (11 of 15)|W. Carew Hazlitt
Impetuous youth, play not with him at billiards, basset, or gleek.
Adventures among Books|Andrew Lang