| 释义 |
▪ I. cloud, n.|klaʊd|
Forms: 1 clúd, 3 clud, clod, (3–4 clode, clude, cloyd, kloude), 4–6 clowd(e, 4–7 cloude, 5–8 clowd, 3– cloud, (6–9 Sc. clud).
[In the sense ‘rock, hill’ OE. had clúd m., early ME. clūd, later cloud; and this also occurs in ME. in the sense ‘clod’ (which may actually be as old or older than 1). The current sense, 3, is found first in end of 13th c. and is app. the same word, applied to a ‘cumulus’ in the sky. OE. clúd was on OTeut. type *klûdo-z (pre-Teut. type *glūˈto-) f. same root as clod, the original sense being ‘mass formed by agglomeration, cumulus’. In Sc. the vowel was shortened at an early date, giving clud (now klʌd).]
I. Obsolete senses.
†1. A mass of rock; a hill.
c893K. ælfred Oros. vi. ii, Cludas feollon of muntum. c1000ælfric Gram. ix. xxvii. (Z.) 53 Rupes, clud. Ibid. xxviii. 55 Collis, beorh oððe clud. c1200Ormin 2656 Ȝho..for anan Upp inntill heȝhe cludess. c1205Lay. 8699 Swiðe wes þe hul bi-clused mid cludes of stane. Ibid. 21939 Heo ut of cluden..comen [c 1275 hii cropen vt of cloudes]. Ibid. 31880 Þat folc..wuneden in þe cluden. a1250Owl & Night. 1001 Cnarres and cludes. a1300–40Cursor M. 22695 Þe cludes [v.r. cloudes, clodes] to þe se sal rin For to hid þam þar-in.
†2. A consolidated mass of earth or clay, = clod, 2, 3, 3 b.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. 44 Wormes woweth under cloude. c1460Cov. Myst. 402 Surgentes dicant, Ha! a! a! cleve asunder ȝe clowdys of clay.
II. Extant senses.
3. a. A visible mass of condensed watery vapour floating in the air at some considerable height above the general surface of the ground.
Clouds are commonly classified in four kinds, cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and nimbus; with intermediate kinds, as cirro-cumulus, etc. See these words.
a1300Cursor M. 2580 (Cott.) A uoice þan thoru a clod [v.r. cloud, cloude] said. Ibid. 16267 For to climbe þe cludes all þe sunn sal haf þe might. a1300Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright) 207 Ther-as the blake clouden beoth, and other wederes beoth also. a1340Hampole Psalter xvii. 13 Clowdes of þe aeire. c1400Destr. Troy 12471 The clere aire ouercast with cloudys. c1440Promp. Parv. 84 Clowde of þe skye, nubes, nubecula. 1513Douglas æneis xiii. x. 13 (ed. 1710) Ane huge bleis of flambys brade doun fel Furth of the cluddis. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. iii. 10 Euery Cloud engenders not a Storme. 1647More Song of Soul ii. App. xcii, Vapours..closely do conspire, Clumper'd in balls of clouds. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 505 Another altar exhibits the virgin Mary in the clouds. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. (1851) I. ii. iii. iii. §4 Clouds..are not so much local vapour, as vapour rendered locally visible by a fall of temperature.
b. As a substance (without pl.): Visible condensed vapour floating high in the air.
a1340Hampole Psalter cxlvii. 5 Kloude as aske he strewis. 1841–4Emerson Ess. Friendship Wks. (Bohn) I. 89 Yonder bar of cloud that sleeps on the horizon. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 40 Vapour, previously unseen, makes its appearance as cloud, or mist, or fog.
c. Often rhetorically used in pl. (also formerly in sing.) for ‘the sky, the heavens’.
a1300Cursor M. 18402 Be-for þat wiþerwin sa prud We sal stei vp vte ouer þe clode [v.r. clude, cloude, clowde]. 1388Wyclif Ecclus. xxxv. 20 His preyer schal neiȝe til to the clowdis. c1400Destr. Troy 3873 Was neuer kyng vnder cloude his knightes more louet. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. v. 74 She is aduan'st Aboue the Cloudes, as high as Heauen it selfe. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Lit. Wks. II. 104 It treads the clouds as securely as the adamant.
†d. phr.
c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xii. 302 He cowde not holde hym selfe by the clowdes, syth that his horse had faylled hym. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 670, I cannot holde by the Cloudes, for though my horse fayled me, surely I will not fayle my counterpanion.
e. As a type of the fleeting or unsubstantial.
1382Wyclif Hosea vi. 4 Ȝour mercy as a morew cloude, and as dewe erly passynge forth. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 387 Saiyng..that all which he mistrusted should passe awaye lyke a clowde. 1859Tennyson Lancelot & Elaine 880 The bright image of one face..Dispersed his resolution like a cloud. 1862Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 27 The science of Political Economy would remain..the weighing of clouds, and the portioning out of shadows.
4. transf. Applied to the two large nebulæ (Magellanic Clouds) near the south pole of the heavens; and to the ‘coal-sack’ (Black Magellanic Cloud) at the foot of the Southern Cross.
1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 279 We..sawe manifestly two clowdes of reasonable bygnesse mouynge abowt the place of the pole continually. 1694Narborough Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 48 The two Clouds are seen very plainly, and a small black Cloud, which the foot of the Cross is in, is always very visible when the Crosiers are above the horizon. 1710Brit. Apollo III. No. 22. 2/1 What by Marriners are called Magellanic-Clouds. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Coal-sacks, An early name of some dark patches of sky in the Milky Way, nearly void of stars..The largest patch is near the Southern Cross, and called the Black Magellanic Cloud. 1872[see cloudlet].
5. transf.
a. A cloud-like mass of smoke or dust floating in the air.
1382Wyclif Lev. xvi. 13 The swete smellynge spices putt vp on the fier, the clowde of hem and the breeth couer Goddis answeryng place. 1611Bible Ezek. viii. 11 A thicke cloud of incense went vp. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 173 Clouds of Sand arise. 1832Tennyson Pal. Art, A statue..tossing up..A cloud of incense..From out a golden cup. Mod. Enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke.
b. to blow (raise obs.) a cloud: to smoke tobacco. (colloq. or slang.)
c1690B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Will ye raise a Cloud, shall we Smoke a Pipe? 1825in Jamieson. 1844W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. iii. (1855) 39 He blew a cloud. 1855[see blow v. 9 b].
6. a. A local appearance of dimness or obscurity in an otherwise clear liquid or transparent body.
1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 88 b, Yf they approche unto the hyghest region of the uryne, they be named cloudes. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 477 For clouds and other pains in the Eye of a Sheep. 1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1134/4 A bright bay Mare..she hath a dry cloud in the right eye, extending to a blindness. 1708Motteux Rabelais v. xlii. (1737) 179 Crystal..without Veins, Clouds, Flaws. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 257, 0·00003 of the sulphate of soda, in the same quantity of water occasions a light cloud. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. iii. (ed. 12) 14 Holding the long glass by the foot, not to take the cloud off.
b. A patch of indeterminate outline on a surface of another colour; spec. a dark spot on the face of a horse.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. ii. 51 Agr. He ha's a cloud in's face. Eno. He were the worse for that were he a Horse. 1675Lond. Gaz. No. 1039/4 A plain iron gray Nag, with a cloud in his face. 1676Ibid. No. 1120/4 A gray Mare..with a black cloud on one side of her face. 1702Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1566 A white Schallop with brown Chestnut Clouds.
7. An innumerable body of insects, birds, etc., flying together; hence transf. and fig. a multitude (of persons or things), a crowd; esp. in cloud of witnesses, tr. νέϕος µαρτύρων in Heb. xii. i.
1382Wyclif Heb. xii. 1 So greet a cloud of witnessis. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. i. 23 A cloud of cumbrous gnattes doe him molest. 1667Milton P.L. i. 340 A pitchy cloud Of Locusts. 1705T. Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 112 A cloud of Informations was brought in by ye Attorney General. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. v. 171 The Spaniards..seeing nothing but a cloud of sail in pursuit of them. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xxi. 602 A cloud of arrows was discharged among the people. 1855Tennyson Maud i. iv. ix, With his head in a cloud of poisonous flies. a1882Rossetti Ballads & Sonnets, Sunset Wings, Clouds of starlings.
8. A light loose-knitted woollen scarf worn by ladies.
a1877A. Thomas Blotted out i. 6 Some cousin who is in sore need of a sofa rug, or a counterpane, or a cloud.
9. a. transf. and fig. Anything that obscures or conceals; ‘any state of obscurity or darkness’ (J.).
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xiii. v, The..arte of rethoryke..Under cloudes derke and termes eloquent. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abuses (1879) i. 186 And yet..shall it be don inuisibly in a clowde. 1638Chillingw. Relig. Prot. iii. §24. 138 The next Paragraph, if it be brought out of the clouds. 1667Milton P.L. iii. 385 Begotten Son..In whose conspicuous count'nance, without cloud Made visible, th' Almighty Father shines. 1752H. Stewart in Scots Mag. (1753) Sept. 452/1 [He] went abroad under cloud of night. 1828Scott F.M. Perth iv, They break into our houses under cloud of night.
b. Phr. in the clouds: obscure, mystical; fanciful, unreal; above the range of ordinary understanding (generally combining the notions of obscurity and elevation); cf. in the air, up in a balloon; colloq. phr. (orig. U.S.) on cloud seven or cloud nine (see quot. 1960); also attrib.; cf. seventh heaven.
1649Selden Laws Eng. ii. xxviii. (1739) 134 The reversion is in the Clouds, but the right of Inheritance much more. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 176 ⁋11 They pry into the worlds of conjecture, and amuse themselves with phantoms in the clouds. 1832T. Attwood Sp. 7 May in Life (1885) xiii. 201 In the clouds were they [the House of Lords] cradled..in the clouds will they die. 1956O. Duke Sideman ix. 120 Oh, she's off on Cloud Seven—doesn't even know we exist. 1959Down Beat 14 May 20, I don't like strange music, I'm not on Cloud Nine. 1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 110/2 Cloud seven, on, completely happy, perfectly satisfied; in a euphoric state. 1963Listener 14 Feb. 301/1 There we were. On cloud nine. 1963Times 11 Mar. 9/4 Instead of Cloud Seven philosophy we got something much more materialistic.
10. fig.
a. Anything that darkens or overshadows with gloom, trouble, affliction, suspicion; a state of gloom, etc.; also, a darkening of the countenance.
c1430Lydg. Bochas i. (1544) 14 b, A cloude of small trespace Made her lorde at her to disdain. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 3 The same clud of ignorance, that long hath darkened many realmes. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, ii. i. 3 All the clouds that lowr'd vpon our house. 1601R. Yarington Two Lament. Traj. iv. vi in Bullen O. Pl. IV, These duskie cloudes of thy uniust dispaire. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xvi. (1843) 890/1 Wrapped up in that melancholic Cloud. 1767T. Hutchinson Hist. Prov. Mass. i. 2 A cloud arose..upon the affairs of the colony. 1862Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VII. lix. 204 A cloud of suspicion hangs to this day over the head of the historian. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. lvi. 131 A heavy cloud came upon the archdeacon's brow.
b. under a cloud: in trouble or difficulties; out of favour; with a slur on one's character.
c1500Song Lady Bessy (Percy Soc. No. 20), Then came he under a clowde That some tyme in England was full hee. 1662Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 453 He was under a cloud at court. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xvi. (1843) 893/1 Mountague..had lain privately in his own house under a cloud and jealousy of being inclined too much to the king. 1752Fielding Amelia v. iv, I have known him do great services to gentlemen under a cloud. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xxxi, Being under a cloud and having little differences with his relations.
11. General combinations:
a. attributive (consisting of clouds, or of cloud), as cloud-bank, cloud-base, cloud-blanket, cloud-cape, cloud-ceiling, cloud-cliff, cloud-cloak, cloud-cover, cloud-curtain, cloud-flake, cloud-flock, cloud-floor, cloud-gate, cloud-island, cloud-mass, cloud-monster, cloud-squadron, cloud-stratum, cloud-wall;
b. general attrib. and possessive (of or pertaining to a cloud or clouds), as cloud-colour, cloud-control, cloud-embrace, cloud-flitting vbl. n., cloud-fold, cloud-form, cloud-gloom, cloud-glory, cloud-nymph, cloud-rift, cloud-serpent, cloud-shadow, cloud-shape, cloud-tempest;
c. objective, as cloud-cleaver, cloud-disperser; cloud-dispelling, cloud-dividing, cloud-piercing, cloud-scaling, cloud-surmounting, cloud-touching adjs.;
d. instrumental and locative, as cloud-barred, cloud-born, cloud-bound, cloud-coifed, cloud-compacted, cloud-courtiered, cloud-covered, cloud-crammed, cloud-crossed, cloud-curtained, cloud-drowned, cloud-eclipsed, cloud-enveloped, cloud-flecked, cloud-girt, cloud-laden, cloud-led, cloud-rocked, cloud-surrounded, cloud-topt, cloud-veiled, cloud-woven, cloud-wrapt, adjs.;
e. also cloud-like, adj. and adv.
1830J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1858) II. 176 A *cloud-bank that seemed to rest on the sea.
1870Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 13 The *cloud-barred east.
1952C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil's Aeneid iv. 77 Rumour..soon puffs itself up, And walking upon the ground, buries its head in the *cloud-base.
1603Drayton Bar. Wars 61 *Clowd-borne care, hence vanish for a time. 1824Campbell Poems, Scene Bavaria ii, Cloud-born thunder.
1898Whittier Poet. Wks. 474/2 Or saw the tabernacle pause, *Cloud-bound. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited 174 Like a gull..out of sight, cloud-bound.
1945F. A. Berry et al. Handbk. Meteorol. x. 645 The *cloud ceilings in advance of the warm front follow the slope of the frontal surface as long as no precipitation takes place. 1952M. Herzog Annapurna viii. 120 The cloud ceiling was low, but we hoped the weather would become more settled.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 31 These wilde Asses haue..a silver colour, (that is as I gesse) a bright *cloud-colour. 1929Blunden Nature in Eng. Lit. i. 35 His cloud-colours and rock masses.
1599Soliman & Persida ii. in Hazl. Dodsley V. 296 My moist and *cloud-compacted brain.
1943T. D. Gordon Coastal Command viii. 76 The Hudson pilot tried to reach *cloud cover.
1591Drayton in Farr S.P. Eliz. (1845) I. 135 This *cloud-couered hill.
1855Longfellow Hiaw. i. 159 Ascending, through the openings of the *cloud-curtains.
1757Dyer Fleece i. (1761) 57 (Jod.) Slopes of *cloud-dividing hills.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 1224 Why her two suns were *cloud-eclipsed so. 1600S. Nicholson Acolastus (1876) 62 The cursed Fates have cloud-ecclipst my Sun.
1907G. Bacon Record of Aeronaut xiv. 261 Bacon leant far out looking at the *cloud floor. 1938C. Day Lewis Overture to Death 15 Crawling in echelon, Beneath the cloud-floor, the bombers come. 1940Illustr. London News CXCVII. 4 The ‘holes’ in the cloud-floor provide the enemy pilot with frequent glimpses of the ground.
1840Clough Dipsychus i. ii. 10 Masses blue, and white *cloud-folds.
1791Cowper Iliad ii. 498 *Cloud-girt, who dwell'st in heav'n thy throne sublime.
c1630Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. 36 The feather'd sylvans, *cloud-like, by her fly. 1876Rock Text. Fabr. 52 Cloud-like transparent muslins.
1708J. Philips Cyder i. 106 That *Cloud-piercing Hill, Plinlimmon. 1827Keble Chr. Y. 1st Sund. aft. Trin., Haughty Jericho's cloud-piercing wall.
1615J. Taylor (Water P.) Sieges Jerus., A proud, *cloud-scaling towre.
1875W. McIlwraith Guide to Wigtownshire 22 Time flies, swift as the *cloud-shadows along the hillsides. 1938R. Graves Coll. Poems 56 Where slow cloud-shadow strayed across A pasture of thin heath and moss.
1907Macmillan's Mag. Feb. 287 A sense of airy living in a castle of *cloud-shapes.
1924A. J. Small Frozen Gold 228 Sullen *cloud-squadrons banked up.
1781Cowper Retirement 79 The *cloud-surmounting alps.
1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. i. 122 Like radiance from the *cloud-surrounded moon.
1732Pope Ess. Man i. 100 Behind the *cloud-topt hill. 1757Gray Bard i. iii, Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head.
1894Outing (U.S.) 183 Mountain heights, *cloud-veiled, snow-crowned. 1967G. Watkins in Coast to Coast 1965–6 209 The glare of the cloud-veiled sun.
a1861Mrs. Browning House of Clouds Wks. 1883 III. 69 *Cloud-walls of the morning's grey.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch. To Rdr. 43 The Barren *Cloud-wrapt Hill.
12. Special combinations: cloud-ascending a., ascending to the clouds, as high as the clouds; cloud-assembler, he who collects the clouds (tr. Gr. νεϕεληγερέτα, epithet of Zeus in Homer); cloud-attack (Mil.), an attack preceded by the discharge of poison gas; cloud-banner (see quot. 1906); cloud-belt, a belt or zone of clouds; spec. = cloud-ring; cloud-berg, a large mass or ‘mountain’ of cloud (after ice-berg); cloud-built a., built of clouds; also fig., built in the clouds; cloud-burst [Ger. Wolkenbruch] (orig. U.S.), a violent storm of rain, a ‘waterspout’; cloud-castle, a ‘castle in the air’ (see castle n. 11); cloud chamber, an apparatus, invented by C. T. R. Wilson, used for experiments involving water vapour, esp. one containing air or other gas super-saturated with water vapour, through which charged particles are passed and become identifiable after condensation of the vapour; cf. Wilson; † cloud-checking a., stopping the course of the clouds; cloud-compeller, he who collects (L. compellere) or drives the clouds, tr. νεϕεληγερέτα = cloud-assembler; also humorously, a smoker; so cloud-compelling a. (also in general sense, ‘that collects clouds’); cloud-drift, a body of clouds drifting or floating through the air; cloud-field, an expanse of clouds; cloud forest, a forest almost constantly under clouds; cloud-headed a., having a ‘cloudy’ head or confused ideas, muddle-headed; cloud-kissing a., so high as to touch the clouds; † cloud-light, clouded light, dim light (also fig.); † cloud-monger (see quot.); cloud negative, a negative produced in photographing clouds or the sky; cloud point Chem., the temperature at which an oil or other liquid begins to cloud on cooling; cloud-rack, a collection of broken clouds drifting across the sky; cloud-ring, spec. the cloudy zone of calms and variable winds at some distance on each side of the equator; cloud-seeding (see seeding vbl. n.); cloud street (see quot. 1954); cloud track, trail, the path of charged particles revealed in a cloud chamber; cloudward, -wards adv., towards the clouds; cloud-world, a region of fancy or mystical speculation (cf. cloud 9 b, cloudland).
1636G. Sandys Paraphr. Ps. xcii. (T.), On *Cloud-ascending Lebanon.
1791Cowper Iliad i. 636 To whom the *cloud-assembler..spake.
1918W. Hutchinson Doctor in War (1919) xiv. 185 The *cloud-attack method of using poison-gas.
1906Monthly Weather Rev. Apr. 158/2 *Cloud banners. The air..expands just enough to form a slight cloud or haze, which floats like a flag or banner to leeward of the mountain top. 1912W. I. Milham Meteorology i. v. 218 The air moving over the summit is cooled below the dew point, and a cloud banner streams out from the mountain top.
1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xi. 19 Radiation from land and sea below the *cloud-belt is thus interrupted.
1879Lowell Poet. Wks. 388 As the *cloudbergs eastward blow.
1765Goldsm. Ess. (L.), So vanished my *cloudbuilt palace.
[a1817T. Dwight Travels (1822) III. ix. 249 This deluge, which they call the bursting of a cloud, took place in Oct. 1784.] 1869J. Muir First Summer in Sierra (1916) 48 Heavy thunder-showers, called ‘*cloud-bursts’. 1881Chicago Times 11 June, The village of Seven Star Springs..was nearly annihilated last night by a water-spout or a cloud-burst. 1888Scott. Leader 21 July, Twenty persons were killed by a terrible Cloud-burst in Virginia yesterday. 1891G. F. X. Griffith tr. Fouard's Christ I. vi. 308 Caught in one of these furious cloud-bursts, the little vessels were scattered far and wide. 1904Scott. Hist. Rev. Oct. 89 The cloudburst and flood of a dozen years ago.
1887Lowell Democr. 95 Many..minds found his *cloud castles solid habitations.
1897C. T. R. Wilson in Phil. Trans. A. CLXXXIX. 269 Watching the behaviour of the air in the *cloud chamber. 1911― in Proc. R. Soc. A. LXXXV. 285 The clouds are viewed through the roof of the cloud-chamber, which is of glass, coated below with a uniform layer of clear gelatine. 1934Nature 28 Apr. 640/2 The instruments with which the [cosmic] rays have been investigated have been the ionisation chamber, the counter and the cloud chamber. 1941Electronic Engin. XIV. 539 The values found in cloud chamber experiments. 1965New Scientist 29 Apr. 306/1 The cloud chamber reveals charged particles by the preferential deposition along their trajectories of droplets condensed from a saturated vapour or vapour gas mixture.
1618Rowlands Sacred Memorie 15 A most hie *cloud-checking hill.
1715–20Pope Iliad xvi. 556 The *Cloud-compeller, overcome, Assents to fate. 1865Times 23 Aug., What avails it..if everywhere..the cloud-compellers have you at their mercy?
1645Waller Poet. Wks. (J.), Bacchus the seed of *cloud-compelling Jove. 1730Thomson Autumn 799 Abyssinia's cloud-compelling cliffs.
1840Carlyle Heroes i, More like a *cloudfield, than a distant continent of firm land and facts.
1922A. G. Ruthven Amphibians & Rept. Sierra Nev. Col. 42 Tropical rain forest, becoming gradually wetter... *Cloud forest, in general like the rain forest, but cooler and more humid.
1559Mirr. Mag. 650 (T.) A steep *cloud-kissing rocke. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 1370 Threatening cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy.
a1536Tindale Wks. 12 (R.) That God would..deliuer them from their shadowes and *cloudelight.
1830Scott Demonol. x. 401 A *cloud-monger, a diviner by looking up to the clouds.
1892Photogr. Ann. II. 60 In the *cloud negative the lighting must be in the opposite direction to what it is in the view.
1934Webster, *Cloud point. 1965Electronics Weekly 18 Aug. 4/6 The precipitation temperature, or cloud point, of gas oils.
1847Emerson Poems, Monadnoc Wks. (Bohn) I. 432 From the fixed cone the *cloud-rack flowed Like ample banner flung abroad. 1855Longfellow Hiaw., Sweeping westward..Like the cloud-rack of a tempest.
1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xi. 284 He has entered the doldrums, and is under the ‘*cloud-ring’. 1862Ld. Ashburton Addr. Geog. Soc. (L.), Hurricanes..originate in or near those hot and densely-clouded spaces, sometimes spoken of as the cloud-ring.
1950N.Y. Times (C-edition) 8 July 15/7 Los Angeles, July 7 ― A *cloud-seeding pilot was credited today with helping put out a 12,000-acre forest fire. 1955Ann. Reg. 1954 400 Many cities..had come to rely on cloud-seeding to augment municipal water supplies. 1965Economist 2 Oct. 43/2 This winter cloud-seeding to disperse fog will be carried out at more [U.S.] airports.
1954Jrnl. Brit. Interplan. Soc. XIII. 272 The most prominent clouds are thousands of bright cumuli—arrayed in roughly parallel bands, called ‘*cloud streets’, which usually indicate direction of the wind.
1923C. T. R. Wilson in Proc. R. Soc. A. CIV. 197 The *cloud track..has been formed by the passage of a β-particle. 1938R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) v. 61 The tertiary electrons can be distinguished from the secondary electrons by the aid of the cloud-track method. Ibid. xxv. 280 Cloud tracks which could be ascribed to the cosmic radiation were to be found naturally on only a small fraction of the Wilson photographs.
1912C. T. R. Wilson in Proc. R. Soc. A. LXXXVII. 289 *Cloud trails sufficiently sharply in focus..to..allow of the ions on which they have condensed being counted.
1817Coleridge Lay Serm. 373 Selfish schemes of climbing *cloudward. 1859I. Taylor Logic in Theol. 273 As the eagle soars cloudward.
a1859De Quincey Wks. 1863 I. 284 This mutilation for ever prevented it from aspiring *cloudwards.
1884F. Harrison in 19th Cent. Mar. 504 The *cloud-world of the transcendental.
▪ II. cloud, v.|klaʊd|
Also 6 clowd.
[f. prec. n.]
I. trans.
1. To cover or darken with clouds; hence fig., to overshadow, throw into the shade.
1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 51 Night..With shaddow clowding earth. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 1007 The moon being clouded presently is miss'd. 1695Blackmore Pr. Arth. iv. 94 Light Vapours..cloud the smiling Skies. 1725Pope Odyss. xi. 20 Endless night..Clouds the dull air. 1822Byron Werner i. i. 716 The ne'er unfelt sun (But rarely clouded).
fig.1656Baxter Reformed Pastor 166 Now they cloud the most of their seniors. a1714Burnet Own Time (1823) I. 288 He really clouded the King, and passed for the superior genius. 1805–36S. 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.
1513More Rich. III (1641) 244 Clowded and shadowed by blind and insatiable ambition. 1594H. Willobie in Shaks. C. Praise 9 Cloud the sence from sharpe conceits. 1720Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. I. iv. 198 Only to cloud the Truth of Things. 1856Dove Logic Chr. Faith v. i. 262 Our moral judgement may..be clouded. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xviii. 212 The tears which clouded her eyes.
†3. To hide, conceal, ‘veil’. Obs.
1623Webster Devil's Law-Case iii. i, The cause why you live thus clouded. 1639Fuller Holy War iv. vii. (1840) 189 Clouding himself in privateness. 1654Earl of Orrery Parthenissa (1676) 762, I was necessitated..to cloud my passion. a1711Ken 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.
1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. i. 74 Your dislikes..Doth cloud my ioyes with danger, and with sorrow. 1646P. Bulkeley Gospel Covt. ii. 161 They cloud over the glory of God's grace. 1752Johnson Rambler No. 204 ⁋2 Why should thy face be clouded with anxiety? 1864Knight Passages Work. Life II. viii. 168 Riot and outrage..clouded the hopes of all honest men. 1883Crawford Dr. Claudius xiii. 233 Anything in the world to cloud his happiness.
5. To cast a slur upon, defame, asperse, sully.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 280 To heare My Soueraigne Mistresse clouded so. 1652J. Wadsworth tr. Sandoval's Wars Spain 279 Hee had clouded his reputation by not succoring Tordesillas. 1746Coll. Rec. Penn. V. 51 Your Annals would not have been clouded by a black and most unnatural Rebellion.
6. To diversify with patches of colouring of undefined outline. (Cf. cloud n. 6 b, clouded 2.)
1710Steele Tatler No. 103 ⁋9, I bid him produce his Cane in Court..and..finding it to be very curiously clouded, etc. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 72 To cloud the Indostan calicoes with many colours. 1816Singer Hist. Cards 50 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.
1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 133 As wether cleerth, or cloudth, so must men take. 1758in Essex Inst. Coll. XVIII. 101 At Night [it] Clouded up. Ibid. 187 A very pleasant morn but Clouds over after noon. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 171 In the evening it clouded over and rained again. 1834Crockett Narr. Life iv. 28 While I was out it clouded up, and I began to get scared. 1840R. Dana Bef. Mast xxxii. 121 In half an hour it clouded up. 1886H. B. Wheatley in Antiquary Feb. 60/1 Crystal clouded if evil was about to happen to the wearer. a1891Mod. The day is clouding over. 1936J. Tickell See how they Run ii. 14 The wind-screen clouded over.
8. fig. To become gloomy; to darken.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 731 Worthies away, the Scene begins to cloud. 1648Petition East. Assoc. 30 Calamities, that are now..clouding round about us. 1858Froude Hist. Eng. III. xiii. 186 When hopes of peace with England had finally clouded. |