[A by-form of CLIFF, due to confusion between that word and clift, CLEFT, a fissure. Exceedingly common in 16–18th c., and used by some writers in the 19th c.] = CLIFF (in its various applications).
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1493, Hipsiphile & Medea. This lady rombith by the clift to pleye.
1567. Drant, Horace Ep., xiii. E iij. Through cliftes [L. per clivos] & fluddes.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., I. ii. We will walk upon the lofty cliftes.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. vi. 62. Three Townes situated vpon high white clay clifts.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. iii. 52. I clamber’d up the Clifts of the Shore.
1756. Gentl. Mag., XXVI. 507. The perpendicular side of Chalk Clifts.
a. 1822. Shelley, Scenes fr. Faust, Wks. 704. How, clift by clift, rocks bend and lift Their frowning foreheads as we go.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, I. ii. 16. A high land, which terminated in a precipitous clift.
Clift, -ed, -ing: see CLEFT-.
