clout
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /klaʊt/
  • (Canada) IPA: /klʌʊt/
Noun

clout

  1. Influence or effectiveness, especially political.
  2. (regional, informal) A blow with the hand.
    • 1910, Katherine Mansfield, Frau Brenchenmacher Attends A Wedding
      ‘Such a clout on the ear as you gave me… But I soon taught you.’
  3. (baseball, informal) A home run.
    • 2011, Michael Vega, "Triple double", in The Boston Globe, August 17, 2011, p. C1.
      '... allowed Boston to score all of its runs on homers, including a pair of clouts by Jacoby Ellsbury ...'
  4. (archery) The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head.
    • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene 1,
      A’ must shoot nearer or he’ll ne’er hit the clout.
  5. (regional, dated) A swaddling cloth.
  6. (archaic) A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 9, p. 129,
      His garment nought but many ragged clouts, / With thornes together pind and patched was, / The which his naked sides he wrapt abouts;
    • c. 1600 William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2,
      […] a clout upon that head
      Where late the diadem stood […]
    • 1743, Robert Drury (sailor), The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 74,
      We condol’d with each other, and observ’d how wretchedly we look’d, all naked, except a small Clout about our Middles […]
  7. (archaic) An iron plate on an axletree or other wood to keep it from wearing; a washer.
  8. (obsolete) A piece; a fragment.
    • c. 1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “The Merchant’s Tale,” lines 707-709, in The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, London: Bell & Daldy, 1866, Volume 2, p. 339,
      And whan sche of this bille hath taken heede, / Sche rente it al to cloutes atte laste / And into the privy softely it caste.
Translations Translations
  • German: Kopfnuss
  • Russian: уда́р
  • Spanish: mamporro
Verb

clout (clouts, present participle clouting; past and past participle clouted)

  1. To hit, especially with the fist.
  2. To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage, patch, or mend with a clout.
    • Paul, yea, and Peter, too, had more skill in […] clouting an old tent than to teach lawyers.
  3. To stud with nails, as a timber, or a boot sole.
  4. To guard with an iron plate, as an axletree.
  5. To join or patch clumsily.
    • if fond Bavius vent his clouted song
Verb

clout (clouts, present participle clouting; past and past participle clouted)

  1. Dated form of clot#English|clot.
    • 1948, The Essex Review
      He tells us how to butter eggs, boil eels, clout cream, stew capons, how to make a fine cake, an almond pudding and a raspberry conserve, […]



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