Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 4 cliket(t, kleket, 4–5 clyket(t, 4–6 cleket, 5 clekyt, 6 clickette, clycket, (kliket, clycked), 7 cliquet, 6– clicket. [a. OF. cliquet, which appears to have had most of the Eng. senses; cf. quot. 1300 in sense 1; also Du Cange ‘cliquetus pessulus versatilis, loquet alias cliquet’; Cotgr. cliquet ‘the ring, knocker, or hammer of a dore, a Lazars clicket or clapper’; mod.F. cliquet.]
1. The latch of a gate or door. Still dial.
[a. 1300. W. de Biblesworth, in Wright, Voc., 170. Par cliket à cerure [gloss. lacche and hok] Ert la mesoun le plus sure.]
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 858. He went forthe at þe wyket, and waft hit hym after, Þat a clyket hit cleȝt clos hym byhynde.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VIII. 252. To openen and vndo þe hye ȝate … Hue haþ a keye and a clyket.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 668. Hec sericula, clykyt.
1530. Palsgr., 206/1. Clycket of a dore, clicquette.
1881. Shropsh. Word-bk., Clicket, the fastening of a gate.
† 2. A latch-key. (In Maundevile it may mean a clapper: cf. 4.) Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 802. Ianuarie … Wol no wight suffren bere the keye Saue he hym self for of the smale wyket He baar alwey of siluer a Clyket … With which whan þat hym leste he it vnshette. Ibid., 873. This freshe May … In warm wex hath emprented the clyket … And Damyan … The cliket countrefeted pryuely.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), 210. He smytethe on the Gardyn Ȝate with a Clyket of Sylver, that he holdethe in his hond [? mistransl.: the Fr. is ‘sonne une clokette d’argent,’ the other Eng. transl. ‘knylles a lytill bell of siluer þat he hase in his hand’].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 82/1. Clykett, clitorium, clavicula.
1483. Cath. Angl., 66/1. A clekett, clauis.
1579. E. K., Gloss. Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., May, 251. Clincke, a keyhole: Whose diminutiue is clicket, vsed of Chaucer for a Key.
† 3. A catch, holdfast, trigger, bolt, that fastens anything by falling or springing into position. Obs.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 401. Thair ledderis … maid a clap, quhen the cleket Wes festnyt fast in the kyrnell. Ibid., XVII. 674. In hye he gert draw the cleket [of a military engine] And smertly swappit out the stane.
† 4. A contrivance for making a clicking sound: a. A clapper or rattle carried by beggars in France, like the clap-dish in England.
1611. Cotgr., Cliquette a clicket, or clapper; such as Lazers carrie about with them.
1634. T. Johnson, trans. Parey’s Chirurg., XXV. xviii. (1678), 606. Cliquets … have two or three little pieces of boards so fastned together with leather, that they will make a great noise. Ibid. Cliquets, where-with he would ever now and then make a great noise.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, II. xix. Such a Noise as the Lepers of Brittany use to do with their clappering Clickets.
b. Bones rattled as accompaniment to music.
1611. Cotgr., Clicquettes, clickets; or flat bones, wherewith a prittie ratling noise is made.
Hence 1656–81 in Blount, Glossogr.; and 1692 Coles.
c. fig. A chattering tongue. Cf. CLAPPER.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Bourse, A tatling huswife, whose Clicket is euer wagging.
5. Applied to a valve or lid that shuts with a click, and various other articles; see quots.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 573. Clitella, a cliket, or a forsere.
1876. Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clicket, a large wooden salt-box, with a sloping lid, on hinges, and made to hang against the wall.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Clicket, the valve of a pump.
6. In the following it is supposed by some to mean a she-fox: cf. CLICKET v.
a. 1500. MS. Cott. Galba E. ix. lf. 110 (Halliw.). [A good horse is] Tayled as fox, Comly as a kyng, Nekkyd as a dukyng, Mouthyd as a kliket.
7. attrib. and Comb., as clicket-gate, a gate with a latch, a wicket; † clicket-key, a key for a † clicket-lock or latch-lock.
a. 1528. Skelton, Bowge Courte, 371. Lytell prety Cate, How ofte he knocked at her *klycket gate.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 69. The Spirit entred by the eare … the clicket-gate of conversion.
c. 1524. Churchw. Acc. St. Mary Hill, London (Nichols, 1797), 119. 5 plate lockes with *Cleket keyes.
1439. Acc. All Souls Oxford, in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, III. 552/1. 27 *clicket locks each with 3 keys.
1527. Lanc. Wills, I. 31. The cofur wt the cleket lok.
