obs. form of cleof, cleove, CLEVE, cliff, steep slope, hill-side, brae. (The modern form would be clee, as in the Clee Hills in Worcestershire, with Cleobury Mortimer, the birthplace of Langland, on their slope.)
Moral Ode (Jesus MS. c. 1275), 343. Þeos goþ vnneþe ayeyn þe cleo [other MSS. cliue], ayeyn þe heye hulle.
a. 1300[?]. Luue Ron, 72, in O. Eng. Misc. (1872), 95. Heo beoþ iglyden vt of þe reyne, so þe schef is of þe cleo.
