Thieves’ cant. [cf. CLY v.] (See quot.)
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cly, Money…. Let’s strike his Cly, let’s get his Money from him; also a Pocket, Filed a cly, Pickt a Pocket.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. v. (1878), 200. No knuckler so deftly could fake a cly.
1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, II. i. 69. ‘They’re just made for hooking a fogle out of a clye.’
Hence Cly-faker, pickpocket; Cly-faking vbl. sb.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Cly-faker, a pickpocket.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, III. xviii. 297. They were gentlemen sharpers, and not vulgar cracksmen and cly-fakers.
1862. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, II. ix. 88–9. ‘But what is cly-faking?’ said Charles.
‘Why a-prigging of wipes, and sneeze-boxes, and ridicules, and such.’
