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clouds

 - 5 dictionary results

cloud

  [kloud]
Use clouds in a Sentence
–noun
1. a visible collection of particles of water or ice suspended in the air, usually at an elevation above the earth's surface.
2. any similar mass, esp. of smoke or dust.
3. a dim or obscure area in something otherwise clear or transparent.
4. a patch or spot differing in color from the surrounding surface.
5. anything that obscures or darkens something, or causes gloom, trouble, suspicion, disgrace, etc.
6. a great number of insects, birds, etc., flying together: a cloud of locusts obscuring the sun.
–verb (used with object)
7. to overspread or cover with, or as with, a cloud or clouds: The smoke from the fire clouded the sun from view.
8. to overshadow; obscure; darken: The hardships of war cloud his childhood memories.
9. to make gloomy.
10. (of distress, anxiety, etc.) to reveal itself in (a part of one's face): Worry clouded his brow.
11. to make obscure or indistinct; confuse: Don't cloud the issue with unnecessary details.
12. to place under suspicion, disgrace, etc.
13. to variegate with patches of another color.
–verb (used without object)
14. to grow cloudy; become clouded.
15. (of a part of one's face) to reveal one's distress, anxiety, etc.: His brow clouded with anger.
—Idioms
16. in the clouds,
a. in a condition of absent-mindedness; lost in reverie.
b. impractical: Their schemes are usually up in the clouds.
17. on a cloud, Informal. exceedingly happy; in high spirits: On the night of the prom the seniors were on a cloud.
18. under a cloud, in disgrace; under suspicion: After going bankrupt he left town under a cloud.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE clūd rock, hill; prob. akin to clod

Related forms:
cloudlike, adjective

Synonyms:
1. vapor. 6. swarm, horde, multitude, throng, host, crowd, army. 16. Cloud, fog, haze, mist differ somewhat in their figurative uses. Cloud connotes esp. daydreaming: His mind is in the clouds. Fog and haze connote esp. bewilderment or confusion: to go around in a fog (haze). Mist has an emotional connotation and suggests tears: a mist in one's eyes. 11. muddle, distort.

Clouds, The

 
–noun
a comedy (423 b.c.) by Aristophanes.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To clouds
cloud   (kloud)   
n.  

    1. A visible body of very fine water droplets or ice particles suspended in the atmosphere at altitudes ranging up to several miles above sea level.

    2. A mass, as of dust, smoke, or steam, suspended in the atmosphere or in outer space.

  2. A large moving body of things in the air or on the ground; a swarm: a cloud of locusts.

  3. Something that darkens or fills with gloom.

  4. A dark region or blemish, as on a polished stone.

  5. Something that obscures.

  6. Suspicion or a charge affecting a reputation.

  7. A collection of charged particles: an electron cloud.

v.   cloud·ed, cloud·ing, clouds

v.   tr.

  1. To cover with or as if with clouds: Mist clouded the hills.

  2. To make gloomy or troubled.

  3. To obscure: cloud the issues.

  4. To cast aspersions on; sully: Scandal clouded the officer's reputation.

v.   intr.
To become cloudy or overcast: The sky clouded over.

[Middle English, hill, cloud, from Old English clūd, rock, hill.]
cloud'less adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

clouds

Particles of water or ice suspended in the air. (See cirrus clouds, cumulus clouds, nimbus clouds, and stratus clouds.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

cloud 
O.E. clud "mass of rock," from P.Gmc. *kludas, metaphoric extension 13c. based on similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses. O.E. word for "cloud" was weolcan. Cloudy is O.E. cludig (in the rock sense), in the water vapor sense, c.1300. Cloudburst (1817, Amer.Eng.) parallels Ger. Wolkenbruch. The imaginary city Cloud Cuckoo Land, built in air, is from Aristophanes' Nephelokokkygia in "The Birds" (414 B.C.E.). Cloud nine is 1950s, Amer.Eng., of uncertain origin or significance. There was a similar association of cloud seven, but some connect the phrase with the 1896 International Cloud-Atlas, long the basic source for cloud shapes, in which, of the ten cloud types, cloud No. 9, cumulonimbus, was the biggest, puffiest, most comfortable-looking.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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