A clicking or rattling sound; a mechanical latch or catch; also an archaic term for a cleft or crevice.
From Middle English and Old English, imitative in origin (expressing the sound 'cleck'). The word may relate to Old Norse 'klekja' and other Germanic clicking-sound words.
The word 'cleck' is onomatopoeia—it mimics the exact sound it describes, like how 'click,' 'clack,' and 'clock' all come from the same family of sound-words that Germanic languages created to describe mechanical noises.
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