• (RP, GA) enPR: kloud, IPA: /klaʊd/

cloud (plural clouds)

1. (obsolete) A rock; boulder; a hill.
2. A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803 ↗:

     So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

3. Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass.
4. Anything which makes things foggy or gloomy.
5. (figurative) Anything unsubstantial.
6. A dark spot on a lighter material or background.
7. A group or swarm, especially suspended above the ground or flying.

   He opened the door and was greeted by a cloud of bats.

   • Bible, Epistle to the Hebrews xii. 1

     so great a cloud of witnesses

8. An elliptical shape or symbol whose outline is a series of semicircles, supposed to resemble a cloud.

   The comic-book character's thoughts appeared in a cloud above his head.

9. (computing, with "the") The Internet, regarded as an abstract amorphous omnipresent space for processing and storage, the focus of cloud computing.
10. (figuratively) A negative or foreboding aspect of something positive: see every cloud has a silver lining or every silver lining has a cloud.
11. (slang) Crystal methamphetamine.
12. A large, loosely-knitted headscarf worn by women.

cloud (clouds, present participle clouding; past and past participle clouded)

1. (intransitive) To become foggy or gloomy, or obscured from sight.

   The glass clouds when you breathe on it.

2. (transitive) To overspread or hide with a cloud or clouds.

   The sky is clouded.

3. (transitive) To make obscure.

   All this talk about human rights is clouding the real issue.

4. (transitive) To make less acute or perceptive.

   Your emotions are clouding your judgement.

   The tears began to well up and cloud my vision.

5. (transitive) To make gloomy or sullen.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance)​​, William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     One day too late, I fear me, noble lord, / Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 5”, 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 ↗:

     Be not disheartened, then, nor cloud those looks.

6. (transitive) To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish (reputation or character).
   • c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:

     I would not be a stander-by to hear / My sovereign mistress clouded so, without / My present vengeance taken.

7. (transitive) To mark with, or darken in, veins or sports; to variegate with colors.

   to cloud yarn

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], OCLC 43265629 ↗, canto IV:

     The nice conduct of a clouded cane

8. (intransitive) To become marked, darkened or variegated in this way.

• French: s'obscurcir
• Italian: annuvolarsi, oscurare, annebbiare
• Portuguese: enevoar
• Russian: затуманиться
• Spanish: nublar

• German: verschleiern
• Italian: oscurare
• Portuguese: obscurecer

1. Surname