clegn.
/klɛɡ/, U.S. /klɛɡ/, Scottish English /klɛɡ/ Now Scottish and dialect.
A gadfly, horsefly, or breeze.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Brachycera > family Tabanidae > haematopota pluvialis (cleg)
clega1449
rain fly1914
a1449 W. Bower in Fordun's Scotichron. (1759) II. 376 The unlatit woman..pungis as the cleg.
1483 Cath. Angl. 66 A Clege.
1570 P. Levens Manipulus Vocabulorum sig. Ei/2 A Clegge, flee, solipunga.
1657 T. Burton Diary (1828) I. 308 Sir Christopher Pack did cleave like a clegg, and was very angry he could not be heard ad infinitum.
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 936 The English [call it] a Burrel-fly, Stowt, and Breese: and also of sticking and clinging, Cleg and Clinger.
1851 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm (ed. 2) II. 188/1 The cleg or gleg..Hæmatopola pluvialis..is so well known, that [etc.].
1855 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Yorks. Words 32 Clegs, the large grey flies which torment horses and cattle in summer. ‘He sticks like a cleg.’
1872 Daily News 24 Aug. For animals of their size, ‘clegs’ are exceedingly light-footed.
Compounds
cleg-stung adj.
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1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun (new ed.) iii. 73 Like cattle brodit with a prong, Or cleg-stung fillies.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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