/klɒθ/, /klɔːθ/, /klɔθ/
OriginFrom Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“garment”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleyt- (“to cling to, cleave, stick”) (compare Albanian ngjit (“to stick, attach, glue”)), a form of *gleh₁y- (“to smear; to stick”). Cognate with Scots clath (“cloth”), North Frisian klaid (“dress, garment”), Saterland Frisian Klood (“dress, apparel”), West Frisian kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), Norwegian klede, Swedish kläde (“cloth”), Icelandic klæði (“cloth, dressing”), Old English clīþan (“to adhere, stick”).
- countable, uncountableA fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use.
“In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally.”
““It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth.[…]””
“There were other types of looms for producing various specialised types of cloth, for example fustians and velvets, but there is not space here to discuss these.”
- countable, uncountableSpecifically, a tablecloth, especially as spread before a meal or removed afterwards.
“One day he came, as I thought accidentally, to dinner. My huſband was very much engaged in buſineſs, and quitted the room ſoon after the cloth was removed.”
- countableA piece of cloth used for a particular purpose.
“The first room the people enter was formerly the Presence Chamber, which is hung completely with black, and at the r-end a cloth of estate, with a chair of estate standing upon the Haut-place under th”
“The stole is a long scarf-like cloth that hangs around the neck, over the shoulders and down the front of bishops and priests [generally, two-four inches across].”
“Wipe the surface with a cloth dampened with mineral spirits in order to remove the sanding dust, then brush on a full coat of varnish.”
- countable, figuratively, uncountableSubstance or essence; the whole of something complex.
“. If we look beyond the chaos of each moment, we cannot help seeing that we are but one glorious thread in the cloth of life.”
“The disparate threads contained are, in the cloth of a religious society, ready to revolutionize the world and bring the Kingdom of Heaven into its full reality on earth.”
“. The rhythm of life in rural Asia has followed an unchanging pattern from generation to generation and for the chronically poor it is soaked in the cloth of continued deprivation.”
- countable, figuratively, uncountableAppearance; seeming.
“Like all cultural realities, contemporary modernism is packed with its own myths, its own largely unrecognized metaphors, its own poetics literally perceived -- or should we say, "misperceived"? -- it”
“Unbelievably, he smiled through his cracked and bleeding lips. A horrible nightmare cloaked in the cloth of good.”
“Not until rehabilitation was wrapped in the cloth of wartime patriotism—a program billed as necessary for the welfare of disabled soldiers—did it receive overwhelming congressional support.”
- countable, uncountableA form of attire that represents a particular profession or status.
“But he could not come in the white cloth of celebration to a burial service, and he could hardly come in the cloth of mourning to celebrate his two decades on the stool.”
“Wearing the cloth of kings would seem to be an appropriate symbol.”
“Occasionally the most fortunate found a jewel, a golden-encrusted dagger, a ring, or some other precious gem which decorated the cloths of glory the Persian chieftains and satraps wore.”
- countable, idiomatic, uncountable, with-definite-articleThe priesthood.
“He is a respected man of the cloth.”
“As someone who finds clear shouts of lively encouragement easier to identify than the “still small voice of calm”, like the prairie rodent I scurried off to various members of the cloth to ask how the”
Formscloths(plural) · clothes(obsolete, plural) · cloath(alternative, obsolete) · clath(alternative, Scotland) · clathe(alternative, Scotland) · claith(alternative, Scotland)