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To call, or name. [Obs.] That other son was cleped Cambalo. Chaucer.

full fair to ben yclept madame. Chaucer. But come, thou goddess fair and free. In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne. Milton. Those charming little missives ycleped valentines. Lamb.

ol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe (=call), Mars yren (=iron), Mercurie quicksilver we clepe, Saturnus lead, and Jupiter is tin, and Venus coper. Chaucer. -- Body snatcher, one who secretly removes without right or authority a dead body from a grave, vault, etc.; a resurrectionist. -- Body snatching (Law), the unau…

bs.] Piers Plowman. Men moot give silver to the poure triars. Chaucer. A privy thief, men clepeth death. Chaucer.

n they fought, were heled [protected], . . . as the snail is in his house; therefore they cleped them snails. Vegetius (Trans.).

sals of Hippolita. Dryden. Boweth your head under that blissful yoke . . . Which that men clepeth spousal or wedlock. Chaucer. the spousals of the newborn year. Emerson.

ne who steals; one who commits theft or larceny. See Theft. There came a privy thief, men clepeth death. Chaucer. Where thieves break through and steal. Matt. vi. 19.

The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony. "That blissful yoke . . . that men clepeth [call] spousal, or wedlock." Chaucer. For what is wedlock forced but a hell, An age of discord or continual strife Shak.

verbs, being chiefly used with past participles, though occasionally with the infinitive Ycleped, or yclept, is perhaps the only word not entirely obsolete which shows this use. That no wight mighte it see neither yheere. Chaucer. Neither to ben yburied nor ybrent. Chaucer.

a link; a bond connection. Boweth your neck under that blissful yoke . . . Which that men clepeth spousal or wedlock. Chaucer. This yoke of marriage from us both remove. Dryden.