Forms: 3–9 cloke, (5–6 clooke, 6 clocke, Sc. cloik, 6–7 clok, 7 cloack), 6–7 cloake, 6– cloak. [a. OF. cloke (13th c. in Littré), cloque, cloche:—med.L. cloca, clocca, cape worn by horsemen and travellers, the same word as cloke, cloche, bell, so called from its shape. Cloak is thus a doublet of CLOCK.]
1. A loose outer garment worn by both sexes over their other clothes.
c. 1275. Lay., 13098. Vortiger … nam one cloke [c. 1205 cape] of his one cnihte.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. III. 294. Shal no seriaunt . were … no pelure in his cloke.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Clooke, armilausa.
1462. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (1841), 150. My lordys tawny cloke lynyd wyth velvet.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 395. [He] gart cloikis mak, and sindrie thairin cled.
1554–9. Songs & Ball. (1860), 12. Thy clocke ys clute withe jaggis.
1612. Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore Papers (1886), I. 12. My Russett ryding clok.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 147, ¶ 7. He grew peevish and silent, wrapped his cloke about him.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 17. A stranger, who assumed the name of Maximus, and the cloak of a Cynic philosopher, insinuated himself into the confidence of Gregory.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. l. Subtle poinards, wrapt beneath the cloke.
1830. Carlyle, in Froude, Life, II. 127. The fairest cloak has its wrong side.
† 2. An academical or clerical gown; particularly the Geneva gown. Obs. or arch.
1641. Curates Conf., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 375. I bought one new cloke [= curate’s gown] in six years.
1727. De Foe, Hist. Appar., iii. (1840), 24. If the Devil should put on the gown and Cassock, or the black cloak, or the Coat and the Cord.
† b. Hence contemptuously for: A Presbyterian or Independent minister; puritanism. Obs.
1649. C. Walker, Hist. Independ., II. 83, marg. Where a dozen Schismaticks & two or three cloaks represented a whole County.
1663. Pol. Ballads (1860), I. 172. Which happen’d when Cloak was commander-in-chief.
3. fig. That which covers over and conceals; a pretext, pretence, outward show.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 35 b. Vnder the cloke of ypocrisy.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 75. I haue nights cloake to hide me from their eyes.
1611. Bible, 1 Pet. ii. 16. As free, and not vsing your libertie for a cloake of maliciousnesse, but as the seruants of God.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 458, ¶ 6. Those Persons, who had made Religion a Cloke to so many Villanies.
1799. Southey, St. Gualberto, 14. Humility is made the cloak of pride.
1858. Doran, Crt. Fools, 15. Under the cloak of folly, good service has been rendered by wise men.
b. A cloak-like covering.
1875. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Resources, Wks. (Bohn), III. 199. Tucking up … the ground under a cloak of snow.
4. The MANTLE or PALLIUM of mollusks.
1842. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 28. Tentacula arising between the cloak and veil.
5. Phrases. † A Plymouth cloak: a cudgel: see PLYMOUTH. † The cloak sitteth fit: = ‘the cap fits.’
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., III. Pref. xv. Which cloak sitteth no less fit on the back of their cause, than of the Anabaptists.
1626. L. Owen, Spec. Jesuit. (1629), 10. I would haue soone recall’d him, with a Plymouth cloake [margin A Cudgell].
a. 1668. Davenant, Wks., 229 (N.). Whose Cloake (at Plimouth spun) was Crab-tree wood.
6. Comb., as cloak-carrier, -string, -twitcher; cloak-fashion, -wise adv.; also † cloak-bearer, a portmanteau, CLOAK-BAG; † cloak-father, a pretended author whose name is put forth to conceal the real author; † cloak-fish (see quot.); † cloak-man, a Presbyterian (cf. 2 b); cloak-pin, a peg for hanging a cloak on; a large pin for fastening a cloak. See also CLOAK-BAG, -ROOM.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Porte-manteau, a *cloake bearer, a leather fastened to the sadlebowe to beare the cloake.
1636. Prynne, Unbish. Tim. (1661), 7. Timothy … Paul’s … *Cloack-carrier, and Book-bearer … was certainly no Bishop.
1822. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., II. 283. Please to throw this mantle round Your neck, *cloak-fashion.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, 11. A counterfeit, and a *cloke-father for a plot of the Popes begetting. Ibid. (1655), Ch. Hist. IX. vii. § 24. The secular Priests say he was but the Cloak-father thereof, and that Parsons the Jesuite made it.
1694. Narborough, Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 16. A great broad flat Fish like a Scate … called by the Seamen a String Ray … called by some *Cloke Fishes.
1680. Roxburgh Ball. (1883), IV. 637. Though *Cloak-men, that seem much precise, ’Gainst Wine exclaim, with turn’d-up eyes.
1820. Scott, Monast., xiii. Stag’s antlers … served for what we vulgarly call cloak-pins.
1725. New Cant. Dict., *Cloak-Twitchers, villains who formerly, when Cloaks were much worn, us’d to lurk, in by and dark Places, to snatch them off the Wearer’s Shoulders.
1863. Le Fanu, House by Churchyard, III. 211. His white surtout, *cloakwise over his shoulders.
