klepht

American  

[kleft] / klɛft /

noun

1. a Greek or Albanian brigand, exalted in the war of Greek independence as a patriotic robber; guerrilla.

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klepht British  

/ klɛft /

noun

1. any of the Greeks who fled to the mountains after the 15th-century Turkish conquest of Greece and whose descendants survived as brigands into the 19th century

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Other Word Forms

• klephtic adjective

Etymology

Origin of klepht

1810–20; < Modern Greek kléphtēs, variant of Modern Greek, Greek kléptēs thief, rogue; kleptomania

Example Sentences

Klepht, kleft, n. a Greek or Albanian brigand.

From Project Gutenberg

They breathe the aroma of the forests and mountains; like the early rhapsodies of antiquity, which peopled nature with a thousand forms, they lend a voice to the trees, the rocks, the rivers and to the mountains themselves, which sing the prowess of the Klepht, bewail his death and comfort his disconsolate wife or mother.

From Project Gutenberg

The dying Klepht bids his companions make him a large and lofty tomb that he may stand therein and load his musket: “Make a window in the side that the swallows may tell me that spring has come, that the nightingales may sing me the approach of flowery May.”

From Project Gutenberg

He has taken the leadership of the coryph�es, and now executes a dance which is called the "Klepht."

From Project Gutenberg

Meantime, the services of the notorious Klepht Achilles have been engaged. 

From Project Gutenberg