cloak
English
Alternative forms
- cloke (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English cloke, from Old Northern French cloque (“travelling cloak”), from Medieval Latin clocca (“travelers' cape, literally “a bell”, so called from the garment’s bell-like shape”), of unknown origin.
Pronunciation
Audio (US) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈkloʊk/
- Rhymes: -əʊk
Noun
cloak (plural cloaks)
- A long outer garment worn over the shoulders covering the back; a cape, often with a hood.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess:
- ‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’
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- A blanket-like covering, often metaphorical.
- Night hid her movements with its cloak of darkness.
- (figuratively) That which conceals; a disguise or pretext.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Thessalonians 2:5:
- For neither at any time vsed wee flattering wordes, as yee knowe, nor a cloke of couetousnesse, God is witnesse:
- Robert South
- No man is esteemed any ways considerable for policy who wears religion otherwise than as a cloak.
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- (Internet) A text replacement for an IRC user's hostname or IP address, making the user less identifiable.
Derived terms
Translations
cape
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blanket-like covering, often metaphorical
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also
Verb
cloak (third-person singular simple present cloaks, present participle cloaking, simple past and past participle cloaked)
- (transitive) To cover as with a cloak.
- (transitive, figuratively) To hide or conceal.
- (science fiction, transitive, intransitive) To render or become invisible via futuristic technology.
- The ship cloaked before entering the enemy sector of space.
Derived terms
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