cliver

cliver

1. (obsolete or dialectal) clever
   • 1918, Harold Bindloss, The Buccaneer Farmer‎:

     There's ways a cliver agent can run up a reckoning, and when you want Mireside I'll have to gan." "

   • 1893, Robert Michael Ballantyne, The World of Ice‎:

     "Ah, but it's a cliver trick, no doubt of it."

   • 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner‎:

     For I've often a deal inside me as'll never come out; and for what you talk o' your folks in your old country niver saying prayers by heart nor saying 'em out of a book, they must be wonderful cliver; for if I didn't know "Our Father", and little bits o' good words as I can carry out o' church wi' me, I might down o' my knees every night, but nothing could I say."

   • 1831, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eugene Aram, Complete‎:

     Oh, they be cliver creturs, and they'll do what they likes with old Nick, when they gets there, for 'tis the old gentlemen they cozens the best; and then," continued the Corporal, waxing more and more loquacious, for his appetite in talking grew with that it fed on,--"then there be another set o' queer folks you'll see in Lunnon, Sir, that is, if you falls in with 'em,--hang all together, quite in a clink.

16th century, from Dutch klieven, of Germanic origin. More at English cleave.

• IPA^(key): /kli.ve/

cliver

1. to cleave (split)

   Le minéral se clive en formes régulières délimitées par les plans de clivage.

• clivage

• “cliver” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• “cliver” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

IPA^(key): /ˈklɪvər/

cliver (comparative cliverer, superlative cliverest)

1. swift, quick, speedy
2. handsome, well-made