clock, verb intransitive
- Forms:
- Also clocke.
- Origin:
- ScottishShow more Scottish and northern dialectal clock to cluck.
obs.
To produce a click, a speech sound found in the Khoisan and some of the Nguni languages. So clocking verbal noun, clacking.
1598 J. Davys in R. Raven-Hart Before Van Riebeeck (1967) 20Their words are for the most part in-articulate, and, in speaking, they clocke with the Tongue like a brood Hen, which clocking and the words are both pronounced together, verie strangely.
1601 J. Lancaster in R. Raven-Hart Before Van Riebeeck (1967) 23Their speech is wholly uttered through the throate, and they clocke with their tongues in such sort, that in seven weeks which wee remained heere in this place, the sharpest wit among us could not learne one word of their language.
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