Cloud sb.

Forms: 1 clúd, 3 clud, clod, (3–4 clode, clude, cloyd, kloude), 4–6 clowd(e, 4–7 cloude, 5–8 clowd, 3– cloud, (6–9 Sc. clud). [In the sense ‘rock, hill’ OE. had clúd m., early ME. clūd, later cloud; and this also occurs in ME. in the sense ‘clod’ (which may actually be as old or older than 1). The current sense, 3, is found first in end of 13th c. and is app. the same word, applied to a ‘cumulus’ in the sky. OE. clúd was on OTeut. type *klûdo-z (pre-Teut. type *glūto·-) f. same root as CLOD, the original sense being ‘mass formed by agglomeration, cumulus.’ In Sc. the vowel was shortened at an early date, giving clud (now klvd).]

  I.  Obsolete senses.

  † 1.  A mass of rock; a hill.

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., VI. ii. Cludas feollon of muntum.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., IX. xxvii. (Z.), 53. Rupes, clud. Ibid., xxviii. 55. Collis, beorh oððe clud.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 2656. Ȝho … for anan Upp inntill heȝhe cludess.

c. 1205.  Lay., 8699. Swiðe wes þe hul bi-clused mid cludes of stane. Ibid., 21939. Heo ut of cluden … comen [c. 1275 hii cropen vt of cloudes]. Ibid., 31880. Þat folc … wuneden in þe cluden.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 1001. Cnarres and cludes.

a. 1300–40.  Cursor M., 22695. Þe cludes [v.r. cloudes, clodes] to þe se sal rin For to hid þam þar-in.

  † 2.  A consolidated mass of earth or clay, = CLOD, 2, 3, 3 b.

a. 1310.  in Wright, Lyric P., 44. Wormes woweth under cloude.

c. 1460.  Cov. Myst., 402. Surgentes dicant, Ha! a! a! cleve asunder ȝe clowdys of clay.

  II.  Extant senses.

  3.  A visible mass of condensed watery vapor floating in the air at some considerable height above the general surface of the ground.

  Clouds are commonly classified in four kinds, cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and nimbus; with intermediate kinds, as cirro-cumulus, etc. See these words.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2580 (Cott.). A uoice þan thoru a clod [v.r. cloud, cloude] said. Ibid., 16267. For to climbe þe cludes all þe sunn sal haf þe might.

a. 1300.  Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright), 207. Ther-as the blake clouden beoth, and other wederes beoth also.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter xvii. 13. Clowdes of þe aeire.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 12471. The clere aire ouercast with cloudys.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 84. Clowde of þe skye, nubes, nubecula.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XIII. x. 13 (ed. 1710). Ane huge bleis of flambys brade doun fel Furth of the cluddis.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. iii. 10. Euery Cloud engenders not a Storme.

1647.  More, Song of Soul, II. App. xcii. Vapours … closely do conspire, Clumper’d in balls of clouds.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 505. Another altar exhibits the virgin Mary in the clouds.

1846.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint. (1851), I. II. III. iii. § 4. Clouds … are not so much local vapour, as vapour rendered locally visible by a fall of temperature.

  b.  As a substance (without pl.): Visible condensed vapor floating high in the air.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter cxlvii. 5. Kloude as aske he strewis.

1841–4.  Emerson, Ess. Friendship, Wks. (Bohn), I. 89. Yonder bar of cloud that sleeps on the horizon.

1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 40. Vapour, previously unseen, makes its appearance as cloud, or mist, or fog.

  c.  Often rhetorically used in pl. (also formerly in sing.) for ‘the sky, the heavens.’

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 18402. Be-for þat wiþerwin sa prud We sal stei vp vte ouer þe clode [v.r. clude, cloude, clowde].

1388.  Wyclif, Ecclus. xxxv. 20. His preyer schal neiȝe til to the clowdis.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 3873. Was neuer kyng vnder cloude his knightes more louet.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. vi. 74. She is aduan’st Aboue the Cloudes, as high as Heauen it selfe.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Lit., Wks. II. 104. It treads the clouds as securely as the adamant.

  † d.  Phrase.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xii. 302. He cowde not holde hym selfe by the clowdes, syth that his horse had faylled hym.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 670. I cannot holde by the Cloudes, for though my horse fayled me, surely I will not fayle my counterpanion.

  e.  As a type of the fleeting or unsubstantial.

1382.  Wyclif, Hosea vi. 4. Ȝour mercy as a morew cloude, and as dewe erly passynge forth.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 387. Saiyng … that all which he mistrusted should passe awaye lyke a clowde.

1859.  Tennyson, Lancelot & Elaine, 880. The bright image of one face … Dispersed his resolution like a cloud.

1862.  Ruskin, Munera P. (1880), 27. The science of Political Economy would remain … the weighing of clouds, and the portioning out of shadows.

  4.  transf. Applied to the two large nebulæ (Magellanic Clouds) near the south pole of the heavens; and to the ‘coal-sack’ (Black Magellanic Cloud) at the foot of the Southern Cross.

1555.  Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 279. We … sawe manifestly two clowdes of reasonable bygnesse mouynge abowt the place of the pole continually.

1694.  Narborough, Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 48. The two Clouds are seen very plainly, and a small black Cloud, which the foot of the Cross is in, is always very visible when the Crosiers are above the horizon.

1710.  Brit. Apollo, III. No. 22. 2/1. What by Marriners are called Magellanic-Clouds.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Coal-sacks, An early name of some dark patches of sky in the Milky Way, nearly void of stars…. The largest patch is near the Southern Cross, and called the Black Magellanic Cloud.

1872.  [see CLOUDLET].

  5.  transf. A cloud-like mass of smoke or dust floating in the air.

1382.  Wyclif, Lev. xvi. 13. The swete smellynge spices putt vp on the fier, the clowde of hem and the breeth couer Goddis answeryng place.

1611.  Bible, Ezek. viii. 11. A thicke cloud of incense went vp.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 173. Clouds of Sand arise.

1832.  Tennyson, Palace of Art. A statue … tossing up … A cloud of incense … From out a golden cup.

Mod.  Enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke.

  b.  To blow (raise obs.) a cloud: to smoke tobacco. (colloq. or slang.)

c. 1690.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Will ye raise a Cloud, shall we Smoke a Pipe?

1825.  in Jamieson.

1844.  W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., iii. (1853), 39. He blew a cloud.

c. 1855.  [see BLOW v. 9 b].

  6.  a. A local appearance of dimness or obscurity in an otherwise clear liquid or transparent body.

1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 88 b. Yf they approche unto the hyghest region of the uryne, they be named cloudes.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 477. For clouds and other pains in the Eye of a Sheep.

1676.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1134/4. A bright bay Mare … she hath a dry cloud in the right eye, extending to a blindness.

1708.  Motteux, Rabelais, V. xlii. (1737), 179. Crystal … without Veins, Clouds, Flaws.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 257. 0·00003 of the sulphate of soda, in the same quantity of water occasions a light cloud.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., iii. (ed. 12), 14. Holding the long glass by the foot, not to take the cloud off.

  b.  A patch of indeterminate outline on a surface of another color; spec. a dark spot on the face of a horse.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. ii. 51. Agr. He ha’s a cloud in’s face. Eno. He were the worse for that were he a Horse.

1675.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1039/4. A plain iron gray Nag, with a cloud in his face. Ibid. (1676), No. 1120/4. A gray Mare … with a black cloud on one side of her face.

1702.  Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1566. A white Schallop with brown Chesnut Clouds.

  7.  An innumerable body of insects, birds, etc., flying together; hence transf. and fig. a multitude (of persons or things), a crowd; esp. in cloud of witnesses, trans. νέφος μαρτύρων in Heb. xii. 1.

1382.  Wyclif, Heb. xii. 1. So greet a cloud of witnessis.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 23. A cloud of cumbrous gnattes doe him molest.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 340. A pitchy cloud Of Locusts.

1705.  T. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 112. A cloud of Informations was brought in by ye Attorney General.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. v. 171. The Spaniards … seeing nothing but a cloud of sail in pursuit of them.

1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xxi. 602. A cloud of arrows was discharged among the people.

1855.  Tennyson, Maud, I. IV. ix. With his head in a cloud of poisonous flies.

a. 1882.  Rossetti, Ballads & Sonnets, Sunset Wings. Clouds of starlings.

  8.  A light loose-knitted woollen scarf worn by ladies.

a. 1877.  ‘Annie Thomas,’ Blotted out, i. 6. Some cousin who is in sore need of a sofa rug, or a counterpane, or a cloud.

  9.  transf. and fig. Anything that obscures or conceals; ‘any state of obscurity or darkness’ (J.).

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., XIII. v. The … arte of rethoryke … Under cloudes derke and termes eloquent.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (1879), I. 186. And yet … shall it be don inuisibly in a clowde.

1638.  Chillingw., Relig. Prot., iii. § 24. 138. The next Paragraph, if it be brought out of the clouds.

1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 385. Begotten Son … In whose conspicuous count’nance, without cloud Made visible, th’ Almighty Father shines.

1752.  H. Stewart, in Scots Mag. (1753), Sept., 452/1. [He] went abroad under cloud of night.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, iv. They break into our houses under cloud of night.

  b.  In the clouds: obscure, mystical; fanciful, unreal; above the range of ordinary understanding (generally combining the notions of obscurity and elevation). (Cf. in the air, up in a balloon.)

1649.  Selden, Laws Eng., II. xxviii. (1739), 134. The reversion is in the Clouds, but the right of Inheritance much more.

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 176, ¶ 11. They pry into the worlds of conjecture, and amuse themselves with phantoms in the clouds.

1832.  T. Attwood, Sp., 7 May, in Life (1885), xiii. 201. In the clouds were they [the House of Lords] cradled … in the clouds will they die.

  10.  fig. Anything that darkens or overshadows with gloom, trouble, affliction, suspicion; a state of gloom, etc.; also, a darkening of the countenance.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, I. (1544), 14 b. A cloude of small trespace Made her lorde at her to disdain.

a. 1572.  Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 3. The same clud of ignorance, that long hath darkened many realmes.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., II. i. 3. All the clouds that lowr’d vpon our house.

1601.  Yarington, Two Lament. Traj., IV. vi. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. 71. These duskie cloudes of thy uniust dispaire.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XVI. (1843), 890/1. Wrapped up in that melancholic Cloud.

1767.  T. Hutchinson, Hist. Prov. Mass., i. 2. A cloud arose … upon the affairs of the colony.

1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lix. 204. A cloud of suspicion hangs to this day over the head of the historian.

1867.  Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. lvi. 131. A heavy cloud came upon the archdeacon’s brow.

  b.  Under a cloud: in trouble or difficulties; out of favor; with a slur on one’s character.

c. 1500.  Song Lady Bessy (Percy Soc. No. 20). Then came he under a clowde That some tyme in England was full hee.

1662.  Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 453. He was under a cloud at court.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XVI. (1843), 893/1. Mountague … had lain privately in his own house under a cloud and jealousy of being inclined too much to the king.

1752.  Fielding, Amelia, V. iv. I have known him do great services to gentlemen under a cloud.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxi. Being under a cloud and having little differences with his relations.

  11.  General combinations: a. attributive (consisting of clouds, or of cloud), as cloud-bank, -blanket, -cape, -cliff, -cloak, -curtain, -flake, -flock, -gate, -island, -mass, -monster, -stratum, -wall; b. general attrib. and possessive (of or pertaining to a cloud or clouds), as cloud-control, -embrace, -flitting vbl. sb., -fold, -form, -gloom, -glory, -nymph, -rift, -serpent, -shadow, -tempest; c. objective, as cloud-cleaver, -disperser; -dispelling, -dividing, -piercing, -scaling, -surmounting, -touching ppl. adjs.; d. instrumental and locative, as cloud-barred, -born, -coifed, -compacted, -courtiered, -covered, -crammed, -crossed, -curtained, -drowned, -eclipsed, -enveloped, -flecked, -girt, -laden, -led, -rocked, -surrounded, -topt, -woven, -wrapt, ppl. adjs.; e. also cloud-like, adj. and adv.

1830.  J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1858), II. 176. A *cloud-bank that seemed to rest on the sea.

1870.  Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 13. The *cloud-barred east.

1597.  Drayton, Mortimeriados, H iv. *Clowd-borne care, hence vanish for a time.

1824.  Campbell, Poems, Scene Bavaria, ii. Cloud-born thunder.

1599.  Soliman & Persida, II. in Hazl., Dodsley, V. 296. Ah, that my moist and *cloud-compacted brain Could spend my cares in show’rs of weeping rain!

1591.  Drayton, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), I. 135. This *cloud-couered hill.

1855.  Longf., Hiaw., I. 159. Ascending, through the openings of the *cloud-curtains.

1757.  Dyer, Fleece, I. (1761), 57 (Jod.). Slopes of *cloud-dividing hills.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 1224 (1594), I ij. VVhy her two suns were *clowd ecclipsed so.

1600.  S. Nicholson, Acolastus (1876), 62. The cursed Fates have cloud-ecclipst my Sun.

1840.  Clough, Dipsychus, I. ii. 10. Masses blue, and white *cloud-folds.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, II. 498. *Cloud-girt, who dwell’st in heav’n thy throne sublime.

c. 1630.  Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. 36. The feather’d sylvans, *cloud-like, by her fly.

1876.  Rock, Text. Fabr., 52. Cloud-like transparent muslins.

1827.  Keble, Chr. Y. 1st Sund. aft. Trin. Haughty Jericho’s *cloud-piercing wall.

1615.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Sieges Jerus. A proud, *cloud-scaling towre.

1781.  Cowper, Retirement, 79. The *cloud-surmounting alps.

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., II. i. 122. Like radiance from the *cloud-surrounded moon.

1732.  Pope, Ess. Man, I. 100. Behind the *cloud-topt hill.

1757.  Gray, Bard, I. iii. Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head.

a. 1861.  Mrs. Browning, House of Clouds, Wks. 1883, III. 69. *Cloud-walls of the morning’s grey.

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., To Rdr. 43. The Barren *Cloud-wrapt Hill.

  12.  Special combinations: cloud-ascending a., ascending to the clouds, as high as the clouds; cloud-assembler, he who collects the clouds (trans. Gr. νεφεληγερέτα, epithet of Zeus in Homer); cloud-belt, a belt or zone of clouds; spec. = cloud-ring; cloud-berg, a large mass or ‘mountain’ of cloud (after ice-berg); cloud-built a., built of clouds; also fig., built in the clouds; cloud-burst [Ger. Wolkenbruch] (U.S.), a violent storm of rain, a ‘waterspout’; cloud-castle, a ‘castle in the air’ (see CASTLE sb. 11); † cloud-checking a., stopping the course of the clouds; cloud-compeller, he who collects (L. compellere) or drives the clouds, trans. νεφεληγερέτα = cloud-assembler; also humorously, a smoker; so cloud-compelling a. (also in general sense, ‘that collects clouds’); cloud-drift, a body of clouds drifting or floating through the air; cloud-field, an expanse of clouds; cloud-headed a., having a ‘cloudy’ head or confused ideas, muddle-headed; cloud-kissing a., so high as to touch the clouds; † cloud-light, clouded light, dim light (also fig.); † cloud-monger (see quot.); cloud-rack, a collection of broken clouds drifting across the sky; cloud-ring, spec. the cloudy zone of calms and variable winds at some distance on each side of the equator; cloudward, -wards adv., towards the clouds; cloud-world, a region of fancy or mystical speculation (cf. CLOUD 9 b, CLOUDLAND).

1636.  G. Sandys, Paraphr. Ps. xcii. (T.). On *Cloud-ascending Lebanon.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, I. 636. To whom the *cloud-assembler … spake.

1860.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xi. 19. Radiation from land and sea below the *cloud-belt is thus interrupted.

1879.  Lowell, Poet. Wks., 388. As the *cloudbergs eastward blow.

1765.  Goldsm., Ess. (L.). So vanished my *cloudbuilt palace.

1881.  Chicago Times, 11 June. The village of Seven Star Springs … was nearly annihilated last night by a water-spout or a *cloud-burst.

1888.  Scott. Leader, 21 July. Twenty persons were killed by a terrible Cloud-burst in Virginia yesterday.

1887.  Lowell, Democracy, etc. 95. Many earnest and superior minds found his *cloud castles solid habitations.

1618.  Rowlands, Sacred Memorie, 15. A most hie *cloud-checking hill.

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, XVI. 556. The *Cloud-compeller, overcome, Assents to fate.

1865.  Times, 23 Aug., 10/4. What avails it … if everywhere … the cloud-compellers have you at their mercy and show none?

1645.  Waller, Poet. Wks., 6 (J.).

1730.  Thomson, Autumn, 799. Abyssinia’s cloud-compelling cliffs.

1840.  Carlyle, Heroes, i. More like a *cloudfield, than a distant continent of firm land and facts.

1559.  Mirr. Mag., 650 (T.). A steep *cloud-kissing rocke.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 1370. Threatening cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy.

a. 1536.  Tindale, Wks., 12 (R.). That God would … deliuer them from their shadowes and *cloudelight.

1830.  Scott, Demonol., x. 401. A *cloud-monger, a diviner by looking up to the clouds.

1847.  Emerson, Poems, Monadnoc, Wks. (Bohn), I. 432. From the fixed cone the *cloud-rack flowed Like ample banner flung abroad.

1855.  Longf., Hiaw. Sweeping westward … Like the cloud-rack of a tempest.

1860.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xi. 284. He has entered the doldrums, and is under the *‘cloud-ring.’

1862.  Ld. Ashburton, Addr. Geog. Soc. (L.). Hurricanes … originate in or near those hot and densely-clouded spaces, sometimes spoken of as the cloud-ring.

1817.  Coleridge, Lay Serm., 373. Selfish schemes of climbing *cloudward.

1859.  I. Taylor, Logic in Theol., 273. As the eagle soars cloudward.

a. 1859.  De Quincey, Wks., 1863, I. 284. This mutilation for ever prevented it from aspiring *cloudwards.

1884.  F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., March, 504. The *cloud-world of the transcendental.