CLOUT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Clout

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/klaʊt/ Listen

noun

Clout n.

1.

A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag. "His garments, nought but many ragged clouts, With thorns together pinned and patched was." "A clout upon that head where late the diadem stood."

2.

A swadding cloth.

3.

A piece; a fragment. (Obs.)

4.

The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head. "A'must shoot nearer or he'll ne'er hit the clout."

5.

An iron plate on an axletree or other wood to keep it from wearing; a washer.

6.

A blow with the hand. (Low)

Clout nail, a kind of wrought-iron nail heaving a large flat head; used for fastening clouts to axletrees, plowshares, etc., also for studding timber, and for various purposes.

verb

Clout v. t. (past & past part. clouted; pres. part. clouting)

1.

To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage; patch, or mend, with a clout. "And old shoes and clouted upon their feet." "Paul, yea, and Peter, too, had more skill in... clouting an old tent than to teach lawyers."

2.

To join or patch clumsily. "If fond Bavius vent his clouted song."

3.

To quard with an iron plate, as an axletree.

4.

To give a blow to; to strike. (Low) "The... queen of Spain took off one of her chopines and clouted Olivarez about the noddle with it."

5.

To stud with nails, as a timber, or a boot sole.

Clouted cream, clotted cream, i. e., cream obtained by warming new milk. Note: "Clouted brogues" in Shakespeare and "clouted shoon" in Milton have been understood by some to mean shoes armed with nails; by others, patched shoes.

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Etymology of 'Clout'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Clout" Quotes from Famous Books

... have made so handsome a young man lend his arm to assist such a nightmare as sister Ursula, in the commission of so great an enormity? Certainly he can neither plead temptation nor seduction, but must have gone, as the worldly phrase is,—to the devil with a dish-clout." ...

— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... sair obleeged to ye for giein' that vratch, Jamie Ogg, a guid doonsettin'. He's a coorse crater; but the warst maun hae meat, an' sae I didna like to refeese him when he cam for wark. But its a greater kin'ness to clout him nor to cleed him. They say ye made an awfu' munsie o' him. But it's to be houpit he'll live to thank ye. There's some fowk 'at can respeck no airgument but frae steekit neives; an' it's fell cruel to haud it ...

— David Elginbrod • George MacDonald

... get out. In time they reached the North Sea, and came to La Sounds Key, according to the prophecy of an Indian wizard. Here they found Dampier's sloop, and rejoined their comrades, to the great delight of all hands. "Mr Wafer wore a clout about him, and was painted like an Indian," so that "'twas the better Part of an Hour, before one of the Crew cry'd out Here's our Doctor." There was a great feast that night at La Sounds Key, much drinking of rum and firing of small arms, and a grand ringing ...

— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield

... told you that he had times of peace, when the agony forsook him, and left him limp like a wet clout. Then he would sweat and quake with terror of the pains that would return; and so pitiful was his condition that he could not even listen with a proper patience to the reading of Scripture or the singing of David's psalms. You will see from this what a terrible ...

— Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases - Seventeen Short Stories • Perceval Gibbon

... "grandmother to our grandiloquentest poets at this present." Francis Meres (Palladis Tamia, 1598) mentions him in conjunction with many great names among "the most passionate, among us, to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love." Spenser, in "Colin Clout's come home again," calls him with a spice of raillery "old Palaemon" who "sung so long until quite hoarse he grew." His writings, with the exception of his contributions to the Mirror for Magistrates, are chiefly autobiographical in character or deal with the wars in which ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various

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