Cliff (klĭf) noun [ Anglo-Saxon clif , cloef ; akin to Old Saxon klif , Dutch klif , klip , Icelandic klif , Dan. & German klippe , Swedish klippa ; perhaps orig. a climbing place . See Climb .] A high, steep rock; a precipice.

Cliff swallow (Zoology) , a North American swallow ( Petrochelidon lunifrons ), which builds its nest against cliffs; the eaves swallow .

Cliff noun (Mus.) See Clef . [ Obsolete]

Cliff limestone (Geol.) A series of limestone strata found in Ohio and farther west, presenting bluffs along the rivers and valleys, formerly supposed to be of one formation, but now known to be partly Silurian and partly Devonian.

Cliffy adjective Having cliffs; broken; craggy.

Clift noun [ See 1st Cliff , noun ] A cliff. [ Obsolete]

That gainst the craggy clifts did loudly roar.
Spenser.

Clift noun [ See Cleft , noun ]
1. A cleft of crack; a narrow opening. [ Obsolete]

2. The fork of the legs; the crotch. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Clifted adjective [ From Clift a cleft.] Broken; fissured.

Climb the Ande... clifted side.
Grainger.

Climacter noun [ Latin , from Greek ..., prop., round of a ladder, from ... ladder: confer French climactère . See Climax .] See Climacteric , noun

Climacteric adjective [ Latin climactericus , Greek .... See Climacter .] Relating to a climacteric; critical.

Climacteric noun
1. A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place in the constitution. The critical periods are thought by some to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9; to which others add the 81st year.

2. Any critical period.

It is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world.
Southey.

Grand or Great climacteric , the sixty-third year of human life.

I should hardly yield my rigid fibers to be regenerated by them; nor begin, in my grand climacteric , to squall in their new accents, or to stammer, in my second cradle, the elemental sounds of their barbarous metaphysics.
Burke.

Climacterical adjective & noun See Climacteric . Evelyn.

Climactic adjective Of or pertaining to a climax; forming, or of the nature of, a climax, or ascending series.

A fourth kind of parallelism . . . is still sufficiently marked to be noticed by the side of those described by Lowth, viz., climactic parallelism (sometimes called "ascending rhythm").

S. R. Driver.

Climatal adjective Climatic. Dunglison.

Climatarchic adjective [ Climate + Greek ... to rule.] Presiding over, or regulating, climates.

Climate noun [ French climat , Latin clima , -atis , from Greek ..., ..., slope, the supposed slope of the earth (from the equator toward the pole), hence a region or zone of the earth, from ... to slope, incline, akin to English lean , intransitive verb See Lean , intransitive verb , and confer Clime .]
1. (Anc. Geology) One of thirty regions or zones, parallel to the equator, into which the surface of the earth from the equator to the pole was divided, according to the successive increase of the length of the midsummer day.

2. The condition of a place in relation to various phenomena of the atmosphere, as temperature, moisture, etc., especially as they affect animal or vegetable life.

Climate intransitive verb To dwell. [ Poetic] Shak.

Climatic adjective Of or pertaining to a climate; depending on, or limited by, a climate.

Climatical adjective Climatic.

Climatize transitive verb & i. [ imperfect & past participle Climatized ; present participle & verbal noun Climatizing .] To acclimate or become acclimated.

Climatography noun [ Climate + -graphy .] A description of climates.

Climatological adjective Of or pertaining to climatology.

Climatologist noun One versed in, or who studies, climatology.

Climatology noun [ Climate + -logy : confer French climatologie .] The science which treats of climates and investigates their phenomena and causes. Brande & C.

Climature noun [ Confer French climature .] A climate. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Climax noun [ Latin , from Greek ... ladder, staircase, from ... to make to bend, to lean. See Ladder , Lean , intransitive verb ]
1. Upward movement; steady increase; gradation; ascent. Glanvill.

2. (Rhet.) A figure in which the parts of a sentence or paragraph are so arranged that each succeeding one rises above its predecessor in impressiveness.

"Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope" -- a happy climax .
J. D. Forbes.

3. The highest point; the greatest degree.

We must look higher for the climax of earthly good.
I. Taylor.

To cap the climax , to surpass everything, as in excellence or in absurdity. [ Colloq.]

Climb (klīm) intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Climbed (klīmd), Obsolete or Vulgar Clomb (klŏm); present participle & verbal noun Climbing .] [ Anglo-Saxon climban ; akin to Old High German chlimban , G. & Dutch klimmen , Icelandic klīfa , and English cleave to adhere.]
1. To ascend or mount laboriously, esp. by use of the hands and feet.

2. To ascend as if with effort; to rise to a higher point.

Black vapors climb aloft, and cloud the day.
Dryden.

3. (Botany) To ascend or creep upward by twining about a support, or by attaching itself by tendrils, rootlets, etc., to a support or upright surface.

Climb transitive verb To ascend, as by means of the hands and feet, or laboriously or slowly; to mount.

Climb noun The act of one who climbs; ascent by climbing. Warburton.

Climbable adjective Capable of being climbed.

Climber noun One who, or that which, climbs : (a) (Botany) A plant that climbs. (b) (Zoology) A bird that climbs, as a woodpecker or a parrot.

Climber intransitive verb [ From Climb ; confer Clamber .] To climb; to mount with effort; to clamber. [ Obsolete] Tusser.

Climbing present participle & verbal noun of Climb .

Climbing fern . See under Fern . -- Climbing perch . (Zoology) See Anabas , and Labyrinthici .

Clime noun [ Latin clima . See Climate .] A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate .

Turn we to sutvey,
Where rougher climes a nobler race display.
Goldsmith.

Clinanthium noun [ New Latin , from Greek ... bed + ... flower.] (Botany) The receptacle of the flowers in a composite plant; -- also called clinium .

Clinch (klĭnch; 224) transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Clinched ; present participle & verbal noun Clinching .] [ Middle English clenchen , prop. causative of clink to cause to clink, to strike; confer Dutch klinken to tinkle, rivet. See Clink .]
1. To hold firmly; to hold fast by grasping or embracing tightly. " Clinch the pointed spear." Dryden.

2. To set closely together; to close tightly; as, to clinch the teeth or the first. Swift.

3. To bend or turn over the point of (something that has been driven through an object), so that it will hold fast; as, to clinch a nail.

4. To make conclusive; to confirm; to establish; as, to clinch an argument. South.

Clinch intransitive verb To hold fast; to grasp something firmly; to seize or grasp one another.

Clinch (klĭnch) noun
1. The act or process of holding fast; that which serves to hold fast; a grip; a grasp; a clamp; a holdfast; as, to get a good clinch of an antagonist, or of a weapon; to secure anything by a clinch .

2. A pun. Pope.

3. (Nautical) A hitch or bend by which a rope is made fast to the ring of an anchor, or the breeching of a ship's gun to the ringbolts.

Clincher noun
1. One who, or that which, clinches; that which holds fast. Pope.

2. That which ends a dispute or controversy; a decisive argument.

Clincher-built adjective See Clinker-built .

Cling (klĭng) intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Clung (klŭng), Clong (klŏng), Obsolete); present participle & verbal noun Clinging .] [ Anglo-Saxon clingan to adhere, to wither; akin to Danish klynge to cluster, crowd. Confer Clump .] To adhere closely; to stick; to hold fast, especially by twining round or embracing; as, the tendril of a vine clings to its support; -- usually followed by to or together .

And what hath life for thee
That thou shouldst cling to it thus?
Mrs. Hemans.

Cling transitive verb
1. To cause to adhere to, especially by twining round or embracing. [ Obsolete]

I clung legs as close to his side as I could.
Swift.

2. To make to dry up or wither. [ Obsolete]

If thou speak'st false,
Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
Till famine cling thee.
Shak.

Cling noun Adherence; attachment; devotion. [ R.]

A more tenacious cling to worldly respects.
Milton.

Clingstone adjective Having the flesh attached closely to the stone, as in some kinds of peaches. -- noun A fruit, as a peach, whose flesh adheres to the stone.

Clingy adjective Apt to cling; adhesive. [ R.]

Clinic noun [ See Clinical .]
1. One confined to the bed by sickness.

2. (Eccl.) One who receives baptism on a sick bed. [ Obsolete] Hook.

3. (Medicine) A school, or a session of a school or class, in which medicine or surgery is taught by the examination and treatment of patients in the presence of the pupils.

Clinical (klĭn"ĭk* a l), Clin"ic (klĭn"ĭk) , adjective [ Greek kliniko`s , from kli`nh bed, from kli`nein to lean, recline: confer French clinique . See Lean , intransitive verb ]
1. Of or pertaining to a bed, especially, a sick bed.

2. Of or pertaining to a clinic, or to the study of disease in the living subject.

Clinical baptism , baptism administered to a person on a sick bed. -- Clinical instruction , instruction by means of clinics. -- Clinical lecture (Medicine) , a discourse upon medical topics illustrated by the exhibition and examination of living patients. -- Clinical medicine , Clinical surgery , that part of medicine or surgery which is occupied with the investigation of disease in the living subject.

Clinically adverb In a clinical manner.

Clinique noun [ French] (Medicine) A clinic.

Clinium noun [ New Latin , from Greek kli`nh bed.] (Botany) See Clinanthium .