Part 288

Cliff (kl&ibreve;f), n. [AS. clif, cloef; akin to OS. klif, D. klif, klip, Icel. klif, Dan. & G. klippe, Sw. klippa; perh. orig. a climbing place. See Climb.] A high, steep rock; a precipice.

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

Cliff, n. (Mus.) See Clef. [Obs.]

Cliff" lime"stone` (?). (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.

Cliff"y (?), a. Having cliffs; broken; craggy.

Clift (?), n. [See 1st Cliff, n.] A cliff. [Obs.]

That gainst the craggy clifts did loudly roar. Spenser.

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

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

Clift"ed, a. [From Clift a cleft.] Broken; fissured.

Climb the Ande&?; clifted side. Grainger.

Cli*mac"ter (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. &?;, prop., round of a ladder, fr. &?; ladder: cf. F. climactŔre. See Climax.] See Climacteric, n.

Cli*mac"ter*ic (? or ?; 277), a. [L. climactericus, Gr. &?;. See Climacter.] Relating to a climacteric; critical.

Cli*mac"ter*ic, n. 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.

Clim`ac*ter"ic*al (?), a. & n. See Climacteric. Evelyn.

Cli"ma*tal (?), a. Climatic. Dunglison.

Cli`ma*tar"chic (?), a. [Climate + Gr. &?; to rule.] Presiding over, or regulating, climates.

Cli"mate (?), n. [F. climat, L. clima, -atis, fr. Gr. &?;, &?;, slope, the supposed slope of the earth (from the equator toward the pole), hence a region or zone of the earth, fr. &?; to slope, incline, akin to E. lean, v. i. See Lean, v. i., and cf. Clime.] 1. (Anc. Geog.) 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.

Cli"mate, v. i. To dwell. [Poetic] Shak.

Cli*mat"ic (?), a. Of or pertaining to a climate; depending on, or limited by, a climate.

Cli*mat"ic*al (?), a. Climatic.

Cli"ma*tize (?), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Climatized (#); p. pr. & vb. n. Climatizing.] To acclimate or become acclimated.

Cli`ma*tog"ra*phy (?), n. [Climate + -graphy.] A description of climates.