English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /klaʊt/
  • (file)
  • (Canada) IPA(key): /klʌʊt/
  • Rhymes: -aʊt

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English clout, from Old English clūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gelewdos, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (to ball up, amass). The sense “influence, especially political” originated in the dialect of Chicago, but has become widespread.

Noun edit

clout (countable and uncountable, plural clouts)

  1. (informal) Influence or effectiveness, especially political.
    • 1975, Len O'Connor, Clout--Mayor Daley and His City[1], page 74:
      Having relinquished his clout in City Council to run for a place on the county board, and having lost stature by reason of his failure to win the presidency, Duffy was in no position to seek the party chairmanship for himself
    • (Can we date this quote?), Tony Alessandra, The New Art of Managing People[2], page 76:
      [] ethics officers themselves often complain that they can recommend but have little clout with which to create real change.
    • 2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian[3]:
      The chopped mushrooms add depth to both the Waitrose and the Go-Go Vegan recipe, but what gives the latter some real clout on the flavour front is a teaspoon of Marmite.
    • 2017, Kimetrius Foose (Lil Skies), Myron Goedhart (lyrics and music), “Fake”, performed by Lil Skies:
      It's funny how they judge you when they see you made a change / I poured another four just to take away the pain / My friends weren't my friends, they was [sic] looking for some clout / I had what they wanted so they always came around
    • 2019 November 29, Taylor Lorenz, “Here’s What’s Happening in the American Teenage Bedroom”, in New York Times[4]:
      Rowan, like most teenagers on the internet, wasn’t after fame or money, though he made a decent amount — at one point $10,000 a month and more, he said. What Rowan wanted was clout. On the internet, clout is a social currency that can be used to obtain just about anything. Rack up enough while you’re young, and doors everywhere begin to open.
  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.’
    • 1985, Brian Daley, Jinx on a Terran Inheritance[5], page 338:
      One of her goons gave him a clout on the ear.
  3. (baseball, informal) A home run.
    • 2011 August 17, Michael Vega, “Triple double”, in The Boston Globe, page 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.
  5. (regional, dated) A swaddling cloth.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 12:
      When a new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in a grass clout, followed by the nibbling goats, as if he were a green sapling; even then, in Queequeg’s ambitious soul, lurked a strong desire to see something more of Christendom than a specimen whaler or two.
  6. (archaic) A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag.
  7. (archaic) An iron plate on an axletree or other wood to keep it from wearing; a washer.
    • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 546:
      Clouts were thin and flat pieces of iron, used it appears to strengthen the box of the wheel; perhaps also for nailing on such other parts of the cart as were particularly exposed to wear.
  8. A clout nail.
  9. (obsolete) A piece; a fragment.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Verb edit

clout (third-person singular simple present clouts, present participle clouting, simple past and past participle clouted)

  1. To hit, especially with the fist.
    • 1997, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, published 1998, page 57:
      A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?
  2. To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage, patch, or mend with a clout.
    • 1549, Hugh Latimer, “[The Second Sermon of Master Hugh Latimer, which He Preached before the King’s Majesty, within His Grace’s Palace at Westminster, the Fifteenth Day of March, 1549.] To the Reader.”, in George Elwes Corrie, editor, Sermons by Hugh Latimer, Sometime Bishop of Worcester, Martyr, 1555 (The Works of Hugh Latimer; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: [] University Press, published 1844, →OCLC, page 110:
      Paul, yea, and Peter, too, had more skill in mending an old net, and in clouting an old tent than to teach lawyers what diligence they should use in the expedition of matters.
      The spelling has been modernized.
  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.
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

Verb edit

clout (third-person singular simple present clouts, present participle clouting, simple past and past participle clouted)

  1. Dated form of 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, []

References edit

  1. ^ clout”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  2. ^ clout”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present: “ [] akin to Middle High German klōz lump, Russian gluda”.

Middle English edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Old English clūt, from Proto-West Germanic *klūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz. Compare cloud.

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

clout (plural cloutes)

  1. A (smaller) piece of fabric; a shred:
    1. A patch (fabric for mending).
    2. A bandage or dressing (for wounds)
    3. rag, tatter (piece of clothing)
  2. A (larger) piece of fabric; a cloth:
    1. Threadbare or inferior clothing.
    2. Cloth for wrapping babies; swaddling clothes.
    3. A burial shroud.
  3. A washer; a round metal panel.
  4. A fragment or shred.
  5. A strike, blow or hit.
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
  • English: clout
  • Scots: clout, cloot
References edit

Etymology 2 edit

Verb edit

clout

  1. Alternative form of clouten