sb. Sc. [formed app. with allusion to clish-clash and claver, with echoic associations.] Gossip, foolish talk.
1728. Ramsay, Advice to Mr. —— On Marriage. This method’s ever thought the braver Than either cuffs, or clish-ma-claver.
1794. Burns, Let. G. Thomson, 19 Oct. Don’t … have any clishmaclaiver about it among our acquaintances.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 262. Her clishmaclavers about the Forty-five.
Hence Clishmaclaver v., to gossip.
1822. Galt, Sir A. Wylie, I. xiii. 109 (Jam.). To keep me clishmaclavering when I should be taking my pick.
