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Gleek

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A game at cards, sometimes called cleek. Thus, in Epsom Wells, Dorothy says to Mrs. Bisket, “Iʹll make one at cleek, that’s better than any twohanded game.” Ben Jonson, in the Alchemist, speaks of gleek and primʹero as “the best games for the gallantest company.”

Gleek is played by three persons. Every deuce and trois is thrown out of the pack. Twelve cards are then dealt to each player, and eight are left for stock, which is offered in rotation to the players for purchase. The trumps are called Tiddy, Tumbler, Tib, Tom, and Towser. Gleek is the German gleich (like), intimating the point on which the game turns, gleek being three cards all alike, as three aces, three kings, etc.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Glasse (Mrs. Hannah)
Glassite (A)
Glastonbury
Glaswegian
Glauber Salts
Glaucus (of Bœotia)
Glaucus (Another)
Glaucus Swop (A)
Glaymore
Glazier
Gleek
Gleichen (The Count de)
Gleipnir
Glencoe
Glendoveor
Glendower (Owen)
Glim
Globe of Glass (Reynard’s)
Gloria
Gloria in Excelsis
Gloriana. (Queen Elizabeth considered as a sovereign.)