Now chiefly poet. Also 6–7 clyme. [ad. L. clima, a. Gr. κλίμα: see CLIMATE.]
† 1. = CLIMATE 1. Obs.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 42. A clyme is a porcion of the worlde betwene South and North, wherein is variacion in length of the daye, the space of halfe an houre.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. II. xvi. (ed. 2), 406. Every Clime consisteth of two Parallels.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. xiv. 225. Our temperate Clime here … beginnes at the 40, and endeth at the 50 degree of latitude.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 321. Thro’ twelve bright Signs Apollo guides The Year, and Earth in sev’ral Climes divides.
2. More vaguely: A tract or region of the earth; now often considered in relation to its distinctive climate. (Now chiefly poet. or in elevated prose.)
1542. Udall, trans. Erasm. Apophth., 216 b. A clime is a region or coste of a countree.
1595. T. Edwardes, in Shaks. Cent. Praise, 18. Amid’st the Center of this clime.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Ch. Militant, 36. Till both removed to a western clime.
1719. Young, Busiris, I. i. Embassadors from various climes arrive.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., III. 185. Fam’d from clime to clime.
1783–94. Blake, Songs Innoc., Div. Image, 13. Every man of every clime.
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, I. 43. To attract the curious and enlightened of every clime.
b. fig. Region, realm.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 708. To walk with God High in Salvation and the Climes of bliss.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., iii. 80. This inclement clime of human life.
3. = CLIMATE 3. Also fig. = Atmosphere. poet.
1598. Drayton, Heroic. Ep., V. 33. This moist and foggie clime.
1727. Thomson, Summer, 1445. Rich is thy soil, and merciful thy clime.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Poems, Wks. (1764), I. 23. Ill can I bear the various clime of love!
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 83. Subject to a clime not dissimilar to the native country of those quadrupeds.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, II. 263. Where a sweet clime was breathed from a land Of fragrance … and flowers.
1865. Worsley, Poems & Transl., 10. The fiery clime Breathed by that fierce quaternion.
Hence Climed a. nonce-wd., allotted to a (particular) clime.
1838. S. Bellamy, Betrayal, 59. The climed hues of earth’s zone-sever’d family.
Clime, climer, etc., obs. ff. CLIMB, etc.
