• (RP) IPA: /ˈkləʊð/
• (America) IPA: /ˈkloʊð/

clothe (clothes, present participle clothing; past clad, past participle clad)

1. (transitive) To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing.

   to feed and clothe a family; to clothe oneself extravagantly

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Proverbs xxiii:21 ↗:

     Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

   • The naked every day he clad, / When he put on his clothes.

2. (figurative) To cover or invest, as if with a garment.

   to clothe somebody with authority or power

   • language in which they can clothe their thoughts

   • His sides are clothed with waving wood.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 2”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     words clothed in reason's garb

• (to adorn or cover with clothing) dight, don, put on; see also Thesaurus:clothe

• French: vêtir, habiller
• German: kleiden
• Italian: vestire
• Portuguese: vestir
• Russian: одева́ть
• Spanish: vestir