[f. CLOUD v. + -ING1.] 1. The action of the verb CLOUD.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 269. History … tainted with cloudings of Truth.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 128. For all thy frownings and thy cloudings.
1707. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 20. More expedient for ye clouding than clearing of the Scriptures.
2. concr. a. A cloudy marking. b. A cloudy streak or part in a clear substance. (Mostly in pl.)
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, iv. § 40. 131. Variable cloudings in the most vivid colour. Ibid. (1870), Lect. Art, vi. 155. The cloudings of the tortoise-shell.
1883. R. Riordan, in Century Mag., Sept., 719/1. Being a mountain streamlet, it bears along submerged or dissolved in it,—rootlets, scales of mica, cloudings of earthy substance, [etc.].
