Obs. Now (arch.) Clouted shoe. [Clout, also clot, may have been orig. pa. pple.: see CLOUT v.]
1. A shoe having the sole protected with iron plates, or studded with large-headed nails. (It may also mean a patched shoe, and in some passages the actual sense cannot be determined.)
1463. Paston Lett., No. 465, II. 125. That men … shuld make redy her bald batts and her clot shon.
[1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 214. I thought he slept, and put My clowted Brogues from off my feete, whose rudenesse Answer’d my steps too lowd.]
1634. Milton, Comus, 635. The dull swain Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon.
a. 1635. Corbet, Poems (1807), 128. And leav’st such printes on beauty, that dost come As clouted shon do on a floore of lome.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xlvi. (1741), 247. Linsey-wolsey coats … clouted shoes, yarn stockings.
1800. Bloomfield, Farmer’s Boy, Spring, 82. The dirt adhesive loads his clouted shoes.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 342. Armed men, with a clouted shoe and a cart-wheel for their standards.
† 2. One who wears clouted shoes; a clown, a boor. Obs. (Cf. Spenser’s Colin Clout.)
1589. R. Robinson, Gold. Mirr., 271. Poore clout-shooes gate their clubs.
1613. Markham, Eng. Husbandman, I. I. ii. (1635), 4. The ordinarie Tillers of the earth, such as we call Husbandmen … and generally the Clout-shoo.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Blacksmith, i. Where is more craft than in the clowted shoen?
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 98. By the Common People is intended the Man of Title, as well as the Clouted Shoe.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Clouted-shoon, a Country Clown.
a. 1704. T. Brown, 2 Oxf. Scholars, Wks. 1730, I. 9. So full of … knavery are clouted shoes.
