Also 6 clowd. [f. prec. sb.]
I. trans. 1. To cover or darken with clouds; hence fig., to overshadow, throw into the shade.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 51. Night … With shaddow clowding earth.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1007. The moon being clouded presently is miss’d.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., IV. 94. Light Vapours … cloud the smiling Skies.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 20. Endless night … Clouds the dull air.
1822. Byron, Werner, I. i. 716. The ne’er unfelt sun (But rarely clouded).
fig. 1656. Baxter, Reformed Pastor, 166. Now they cloud the most of their seniors.
a. 1714. Burnet, Own Time (1823), I. 288. He really clouded the King, and passed for the superior genius.
1805–36. S. Turner, Anglo-Sax., I. III. iii. 172. The commander, whose merit … clouds every other.
2. transf. and fig. To render obscure; to dim, obscure, darken.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1641), 244. Clowded and shadowed by blind and insatiable ambition.
1594. H. Willobie, in Shaks. C. Praise, 9. Cloud the sence from sharpe conceits.
1720. Ozell, Vertot’s Rom. Rep., I. IV. 198. Only to cloud the Truth of Things.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, V. i. 262. Our moral judgement may … be clouded.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xviii. 212. Hiding the tears which clouded her eyes.
† 3. To hide, conceal, ‘veil.’ Obs.
1623. Webster, Devil’s Law-Case, III. i. The cause why you live thus clouded.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, IV. vii. (1840), 189. Clouding himself in privateness.
1654. Earl Orrery, Parthenissa (1676), 762. I was necessitated … to cloud my passion.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 292. Which he in Fable clouded.
4. To overspread with gloom, cast a shadow over, deprive of brightness; to darken with trouble.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., IV. i. 74. Your dislikes … Doth cloud my ioyes with danger, and with sorrow.
1646. P. Bulkeley, Gospel Covt., III. (1651), 228. They cloud over the glory of Gods grace.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 204, ¶ 2. Why should thy face be clouded with anxiety?
1864. Knight, Passages Work. Life, II. viii. 168. Riot and outrage … clouded the hopes of all honest men.
1883. F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, xiii. 233. No one could have told … that there was anything in the world to cloud his happiness.
5. To cast a slur upon, defame, asperse, sully.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 280. To heare My Soueraigne Mistresse clouded so.
1652. J. Wadsworth, trans. Sandoval’s Civ. Wars Spain, 279. Hee had clouded his reputation by not succoring Tordesillas.
1746. Coll. Rec. Penn., V. 51. Your Annals would not have been clouded by a black and most unnatural Rebellion.
6. To diversify with patches of coloring of undefined outline. (Cf. CLOUD sb. 6 b, CLOUDED 2.)
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 103, ¶ 9. I bid him produce his Cane in Court … and … finding it to be very curiously clouded, [etc.].
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 72. To cloud the Indostan calicoes with many colours.
1816. Singer, Hist. Cards, 50, note. The backs are gilt, or rather clouded with gold.
II. intr.
7. To become ‘cloudy’ or dim; to become overcast with clouds. Const. over, up.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 133. As wether cléerth, or cloudth, so must men take.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxii. 121. In half an hour it clouded up.
1886. H. B. Wheatley, in Antiquary, Feb., 60/1. Crystal clouded if evil was about to happen to the wearer.
Mod. The day is clouding over.
8. fig. To become gloomy; to darken.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 731. Worthies away, the Scene begins to cloud.
1648. Petition East. Assoc., 30. Calamities, that are now … clouding round about us.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xiii. 186. When hopes of peace with England had finally clouded.
