gleg
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡlɛɡ/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛɡ
Verb
gleg (third-person singular simple present glegs, present participle glegging, simple past and past participle glegged)
- (Northern England) To glance.
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:glance
Noun
gleg (plural glegs)
- (now rare, Northern England) A look or glance.
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], OCLC 855945:
- And besides, you'd do the tomb so well. Everybody feels as if they want a gleg at the skeleton in your vault.
-
Etymology 2
Variant forms.
Noun
gleg (plural glegs)
- Alternative form of cleg
Adjective
gleg (comparative glegger, superlative gleggest)
- (Scotland) smart; quick; brisk
- 1856, Thomas Hamilton, The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton (page 279)
- One patted her neck, and assured her she was the gleggest and bonniest young thing she had ever seen.
- 1856, Thomas Hamilton, The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton (page 279)
Anagrams
- Legg
Scots
Etymology
Possibly ultimately related to Irish glicc (“shrewd, acute”), Ancient Greek καλχαίνω (kalkhaínō, “to ponder”), Proto-Germanic *klōkaz (“quick, smart”), Middle English begalewen (“to frighten, stupefy”).[1][2]
Adjective
gleg (comparative mair gleg, superlative maist gleg)
- smart, quick, brisk
- alert, quick-witted, keen in sight, hearing, etc.
- 1836 Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft. Act 1. p13.
- 'When she begins to mutter wi' her white wuthered lips, and her twa gleg eyen are glowering like glints o' wildfire frae the hollow o' her dark bent brows, she 's enough to mak a trooper quake; ay, wi' baith swurd and pistol by his side.'
- 1836 Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft. Act 1. p13.
- intelligent, adroit, skilful
- (of blades, points, etc) sharp
Derived terms
- gleg-lugged
- gleg-gabbit
References
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/
- MacBain, Alexander; Mackay, Eneas (1911), “gleg”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Stirling, →ISBN, page glic
- van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “kloek2”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute