What does clint mean?
Clint is a noun used mainly in Northern England to mean a hard rock or, more specifically, an outcrop or crag of stone. Its best-known modern use is geological: on a limestone pavement, the flat blocks of rock that stand between the deep vertical fissures are called clints, while the fissures themselves are called grikes. The phrase 'clints and grikes' therefore appears regularly in descriptions of karst landscape such as that found at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. Outside this regional and technical setting the word is little known, and most readers will encounter it only in nature writing or geology. Though obscure to many, it is a precise and evocative term: where 'rock' or 'crag' would be vague, clint names exactly the raised slab of stone left standing by erosion. It derives from Old Norse and survives as part of the distinctive vocabulary of northern English upland country, alongside related words for scarps and stones shaped by centuries of local speech.
nounA hard or stony rock; specifically, in Northern English usage, a rocky outcrop or crag, especially one of the exposed limestone blocks on a limestone pavement.
- A hard rock or stone (chiefly dialectal).
- A rocky outcrop or crag; on limestone pavements, the block of limestone remaining between the solution fissures known as grikes.
"The sheep grazed between the clints and grikes of the weathered limestone pavement above Malham."
"The path climbed steeply over moss-covered clints towards the summit ridge."
"Rainwater had dissolved the joints between the clints, leaving a striking pattern of slabs and fissures across the pavement."
Regular plural; typically used of the multiple limestone blocks on a pavement rather than of rocks generally.
"The clints were slick with rain as we picked our way across the pavement."
Walk across a Yorkshire limestone pavement and you're stepping over clints — the blocks left standing between the deep cracks called grikes, a pair of words that survived from Old Norse.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clint
Clint comes from Old Norse 'klettr', meaning a rock or crag, brought to northern England during the Viking settlement of the region. It has been used in Northern English dialect since at least the medieval period and remains current in the Pennines and Yorkshire Dales. The same Norse root underlies related Scandinavian forms, and the word's survival in English is largely thanks to its adoption into geological terminology describing limestone pavements, where it pairs with 'grike', another northern dialect word.
How clint is actually used
The word is chiefly confined to Northern English dialect and to geological writing about the Pennines, Yorkshire Dales, and similar limestone country. It is unfamiliar to most speakers outside these regions, so it is best glossed when used in general writing. The fixed pairing with 'grikes' is characteristic of descriptions of karst scenery.
Easily confused with clint
Flint is a specific hard grey sedimentary rock used to make tools and start fires, whereas clint is a general northern English term for any hard rock or limestone outcrop.