a. Sc. and north. dial. [f. CLART sb., or ? v. + -Y1.] Besmeared with sticky dirt; of the nature of sticky dirt, dirty, nasty.

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a. 1586.  Maitland, Poems, in Pinkerton, Sc. Poems (1786), 185 (Jam.). Thay man be buskit up lyk brydis … With clarty silk about thair taillis.

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a. 1693.  Urquhart, Rabelais, III. xxviii. 236. Clarty cod.

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1789.  Burns, Lines on Appointm. to Excise. Och, hon! the day! That clarty barm should stain my laurels.

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1816.  Scott, Antiq., xxvi. Their old sluttish proverb, ‘The clartier the cosier.’

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1845.  [Emma Robinson], Whitehall, xlv. 317. ‘Kneel yourself, if you want clarty hose,’ replied Joyce.

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  b.  Sticky, viscous or unctuous. north. Eng.

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1855.  Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Clarty, unctuous as honey, smeary. Ibid. (1876), (E. D. S.), Clarty-ball, treacle- or sugar-ball.

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1877.  N. W. Lincoln. Gloss., Clarty, dirty, sticky.

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  c.  in various transf. and fig. senses.

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1686.  G. Stuart, Joco-Ser. Disc., 47. Other clarty tricks he played.

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1876.  Whitby Gloss., Clarty, mean, or of little consequence. Clarty bills, petty amounts.

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1883.  Good Cheer, 3. One of the clartiest storms I ever was in.

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