1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. CLOUT, a blow, (cant), I’ll give you a clout on your jolly nob; I’ll give you a blow on the head.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1864. M. E. BRADDON, Aurora Floyd, ch. xx. ‘If you had a father that’d fetch you a CLOUT of the head as soon as look at you, you’d run away perhaps.
2. (thieves’).—A pocket-handkerchief. [A.S. clút, a clout or patch; Dan. klud, Swed. klut, or perhaps from the Keltic; hence, any worthless piece of cloth.] For synonyms, see WIPE, sense 2.
1574–1637. JONSON, Gipsies Metamorphosed. And Tidslefoot has lost his CLOUT, he says, with a three-pence and four tokens in’t.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. [List of Cant Words in.] CLOUT: a handkerchief.
1754. FIELDING, Jonathan Wild, bk. I., ch. ix. A neat double CLOUT, which seemed to have been worn a few weeks only, was pinned under her chin.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. A handkerchief.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum. A handkerchief. Cant. Any pocket handkerchief except a silk one.
1864. HOTTEN, Slang Dictionary. CLOUT, or Rag, a cotton pocket handkerchief (old cant).
3. plural (low).—A woman’s under-clothes, from the waist downwards. Also her complete wardrobe, on or off the person.
4. (common).—A woman’s ‘bandage’; ‘diaper’; or ‘sanitary.’
Verb (low).—1. To strike. Fr., jeter une mandole. For synonyms, see TAN.
1576–1625. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER [quoted in Annandale’s ed. of Ogilvie’s Imperial Dictionary]. Pay him over the pate, CLOUT him for all his courtesies.
2. (old).—To patch; to tinker.
17[?]. Scots Ballad.
| I’ll CLOUT my Johnnie’s grey breeks | |
| For a’ the ill he’s done me yet. |
1785. BURNS, The Jolly Beggars.
| In vain they search’d, when off I march’d | |
| To go and CLOUT the caudron. |
