Chiefly Sc. Obs. exc. dial. Also clynt, klynte. [a. Da. and Sw. klint:—OSw. klinter, Icel. klettr, rock. Cf. CLET.]
1. A hard or flinty rock; a hard rock projecting on the side of a hill or river, or in the bed of a stream; a part of a crag standing out between crevices or fissures.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17590 (Cott.). Þir caitif Iuus sent into clinttes and into clous To seke iesu.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4830. Ȝit fand he clouen þurȝe þe clynt twa crasid gatis.
1533. Bellenden, Livy (1822), Introd. p. viii. The passage and stremes … full of crag and clint.
1845. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Eng., VI. I. 95. Nibbling out … every patch … up to the very teeth of the hard and sturdy grey clints.
2. Curling. ‘A rough, coarse stone, always first thrown off … as being most likely to keep its place on the ice’ (Jam.).
1789. D. Davidson, Seasons, 116 (Jam.). ’Gainst the herd [he] Dang frae his clint a flaw.
