1 a soldier: Well, God I didn’t want to bing to the cleesties. [I didn’t want to go to the soldiers.] 19-.
2 a policeman 20. etymology: origin obscure; also collected by EMcC/PS and RD; perhaps only found in Scottish Traveller usage; sense 2 attested by Galloway Tinkler-Gypsies; sense 1 collected by Simson (1865) and attested by three of his informants and by Joseph F G S Lucas from Kirk Yetholm Gypsies; form cleestie attested by SS; form kliestie sense 1 attested by BS in TDITA note:
Sense 1 attested by Canadian Paul Pope (2013) with the form kliestie.