Sc. and north. dial. Also clat(e, clawt. [See CLAUT sb. (It might possibly represent an OE. *clawettan, f. clawet; see prec.).] To scratch, claw, rake, scrape out, extract with claws, or the like.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (1885), 30. This oxx … regardet nocht [the dogs] bot walde clate him with his cluifes.
1674. Ray, N. Country Wds., 14. To Claut, to scratch, to claw.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1790. A. Wilson, Elegy Unfort. Tailor, Wks. (1846), 45. Soon as ilka dish was clautet.
1823. J. Wilson, Trials Marg. Lyndsay, 65 (Jam.). Here is four pound. May it do nae guid to him who clawts it out o’ the widow’s house.
1876. Mid Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clawt, to claw in an indecisive quick manner.
1876. Whitby Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clawting, a buffeting, where the fists and fingers are engaged.
