# cloth
## English
### Alternative forms

* cloath (obsolete)
* clath, clathe, claith (Scotland)

### Etymology

From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“garment”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleyt- (“to cling to, cleave, stick”) (compare Albanian ngjit (“to stick, attach, glue”)), a form of *gleh₁y- (“to smear; to stick”). Cognate with Scots clath (“cloth”), North Frisian klaid (“dress, garment”), Saterland Frisian Klood (“dress, apparel”), West Frisian kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), Norwegian klede, Swedish kläde (“cloth”), Icelandic klæði (“cloth, dressing”), Old English clīþan (“to adhere, stick”).

### Pronunciation

* (RP, Australia) enPR: klŏth, IPA: /klɒθ/, (archaic) /klɔːθ/
* (General American) enPR: klôth, IPA: /klɔθ/
* (cot–caught merger) enPR: klŏth, IPA: /klɑθ/
** Audio (General American):(file)
* (obsolete) enPR: klōth, IPA: /kloʊθ/
* Rhymes: -ɒθ

### Noun

cloth (countable and uncountable, plural cloths or (obsolete) clothes)
* (countable, uncountable) A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use.
** 1820, Encyclopaedia Britannica; Or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature‎, 6th edition, volume 20, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, page 501:In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally.
** 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:“It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”
** 2017, Roger Holden, Manufacturing the Cloth of the World, →ISBN, page 26:There were other types of looms for producing various specialised types of cloth, for example fustians and velvets, but there is not space here to discuss these.
* Specifically, a tablecloth, especially as spread before a meal or removed afterwards.
** 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC, chapter XI, page 52:One day he came, as I thought accidentally, to dinner. My huſband was very much engaged in buſineſs, and quitted the room ſoon after the cloth was removed.
* (countable) A piece of cloth used for a particular purpose.
** 1824, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction:The first room the people enter was formerly the Presence Chamber, which is hung completely with black, and at the r-end a cloth of estate, with a chair of estate standing upon the Haut-place under the state.
** 2004, Robin D. Gill, Topsy-turvy 1585, →ISBN:The stole is a long scarf-like cloth that hangs around the neck, over the shoulders and down the front of bishops and priests [generally, two-four inches across].
** 2009, Albert Jackson, David Day, Popular Mechanics Complete Home How-to, →ISBN, page 80:Wipe the surface with a cloth dampened with mineral spirits in order to remove the sanding dust, then brush on a full coat of varnish.
* (figurative) Substance or essence; the whole of something complex.
** 2001, Sang H. Kim, The Art of Harmony: A Guide to Happiness, →ISBN, page 14:. If we look beyond the chaos of each moment, we cannot help seeing that we are but one glorious thread in the cloth of life.
** 2004, Thomas D. Hamm, The Quakers in America, →ISBN, page 124:The disparate threads contained are, in the cloth of a religious society, ready to revolutionize the world and bring the Kingdom of Heaven into its full reality on earth.
** 2009, John Malcolm Dowling, Chin-Fang Yap, Chronic Poverty in Asia: Causes, Consequences and Policies, →ISBN:. The rhythm of life in rural Asia has followed an unchanging pattern from generation to generation and for the chronically poor it is soaked in the cloth of continued deprivation.
** 2012, R. Tirrell Leonard Jr., In The Murmuring Trees, →ISBN, page 79:A wrinkle in the cloth of time, a cry of soft caress and fragrant dreams to weld the metal fabric souls in blends so held in high regards across the lands and sky.
* (figurative) Appearance; seeming.
** 2002, Patricia L. Munhall, Ed Madden, Virginia Macken Fitzsimons, The Emergence of Man Into the 21st Century, →ISBN, page 407:Like all cultural realities, contemporary modernism is packed with its own myths, its own largely unrecognized metaphors, its own poetics literally perceived -- or should we say, "misperceived"? -- its own reifications and idiosyncratic distinctions. And it comes to us decorated in the cloth of emancipation, a new freedom that would seem to liberate us from those restraints and bonds that were the excretions of an older mindset, an alien political and social order, a rigid and stultifying hierarchy now perceived as riddled with superstition, arbitrary premise, and false conjunction — in contrast, of course, to the liberated mindset that bespeaks our own age!
** 2007, Kathy Steffen, First, There Is a River, →ISBN:Unbelievably, he smiled through his cracked and bleeding lips. A horrible nightmare cloaked in the cloth of good.
** 2011, Beth Linker, War's Waste: Rehabilitation in World War I America, →ISBN, page 148:Not until rehabilitation was wrapped in the cloth of wartime patriotism—a program billed as necessary for the welfare of disabled soldiers—did it receive overwhelming congressional support.
** 2014, Shara Russell, In the Shadow of Faith, →ISBN:After being at your beck and call all these years, he wants a woman, not the consummate teen-ager pretending she's a grownup wrapping her flesh in the cloth of her church.
* A form of attire that represents a particular profession or status.
** 1993, Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture, →ISBN, page 185:But he could not come in the white cloth of celebration to a burial service, and he could hardly come in the cloth of mourning to celebrate his two decades on the stool.
** 2004, Alison Dundes Renteln, The Cultural Defense, →ISBN, page 151:Wearing the cloth of kings would seem to be an appropriate symbol.
** 2013, Paul Doherty, The House of Death, →ISBN:Occasionally the most fortunate found a jewel, a golden-encrusted dagger, a ring, or some other precious gem which decorated the cloths of glory the Persian chieftains and satraps wore.
** 2016, Stephen John Goundry, Hot Coals of Fire: The Sanctity of the Ministry, →ISBN:The Old Testament Ministers of God, Aaron and his sons, who were the priests, wore special 'cloths of service.' They were dressed in 'holy garments' so that they could stand and offer in the Presence of God, being beautified by them and being enabled through them to perform their sacred duties.
* (in idioms) Priesthood, clergy.
    He is a respected man of the cloth.

#### Synonyms

* (woven fabric): material, stuff
* See also Thesaurus:fabric

#### Derived terms

* Aida cloth
* airplane cloth
* altar cloth, altar-cloth
* American cloth
* backcloth
* back-cloth
* back-cloth star
* barkcloth
* barmcloth
* bolting cloth
* book-cloth
* brattice cloth
* breech-cloth
* breechcloth
* broadcloth
* cerecloth
* charcloth
* cheesecloth
* chincloth
* clothback
* clothbound
* cloth cap
* cloth-eared
* cloth-ears
* clothed
* cloth hall
* clothhead
* clothier
* clothify
* clothism
* clothless
* clothlike
* clothmaker
* clothmaking
* cloth nappy
* cloth of gold
* cloth of tissue
* cloth pad
* clothwork
* clothworker
* clothy
* clothyard
* clot shot
* communion cloth
* composition cloth
* crumbcloth
* cut from the same cloth, cut of the same cloth, cut out of the same cloth
* cut one's cloth to suit one's purse
* cut one's coat according to one's cloth
* cut the coat according to the cloth
* dishcloth, dish cloth, dish-cloth
* doublecloth
* drabcloth
* draw the cloth
* drop cloth
* dropcloth
* dustcloth
* dust cloth
* emery cloth
* empress cloth
* facecloth, face cloth
* floorcloth
* focusing cloth, focussing cloth
* footcloth
* forecloth
* grasscloth
* Greencloth
* groundcloth
* haircloth
* handcloth
* hardware cloth
* headcloth
* hearsecloth
* Henrietta cloth
* hindcloth
* horsecloth
* housecloth
* ironing cloth
* Italian cloth
* Janus cloth
* J-cloth
* kente cloth
* knight of the green cloth
* lady's cloth
* leathercloth
* lee cloth
* loincloth
* lot-cloth split
* man of the cloth
* match-cloth
* microcloth
* monkscloth
* mort cloth
* mudcloth
* mummy cloth
* narrow cloth
* neckcloth, neck-cloth
* nettlecloth
* nettle cloth
* nightcloth
* oilcloth
* overcloth
* packcloth
* pad cloth
* pagri cloth
* paper-cloth
* pilot cloth
* pincloth
* poodle cloth
* pressing cloth
* race cloth
* rick cloth
* rune cloth
* sackcloth
* saddlecloth
* saddle-cloth
* sailcloth
* sealskin cloth
* shade cloth
* shake a cloth in the wind
* shaving cloth
* silvercloth
* skycloth
* space cloth
* spider cloth
* sponge cloth
* sweat-cloth
* tablecloth, table cloth, table-cloth
* take the cloth
* teacloth
* tea cloth
* terry cloth
* Thibet cloth
* toilet cloth
* topcloth
* touch cloth
* traycloth
* undercloth
* union cloth
* vellum cloth
* Venetian cloth
* waistcloth
* washcloth
* waxcloth
* weather cloth
* whole cloth, from whole cloth, out of whole cloth
* winding cloth
* wire cloth
* zephyr cloth

#### Related terms

* clothe, clothes, clothing

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

## Irish
### Etymology

From Old Irish cloth, from Proto-Celtic *klutom (compare Welsh clod), nominalization of Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós (“famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). Cognate with Ancient Greek κλυτός (klutós, “famous”), Sanskrit श्रुत (śruta, “famous”), and English loud.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /klˠɔ(h)/

### Noun

cloth m (genitive singular cloith, nominative plural cloith) (literary)
* fame, honor
* reputation

#### Declension

bare forms
singular
plural
nominative
cloth
cloith
vocative
a chloith
a chlotha
genitive
cloith
cloth
dative
cloth
cloith
forms with the definite article
singular
plural
nominative
an cloth
na cloith
genitive
an chloith
na gcloth
dative
leis an gcloth don chloth
leis na cloith :

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “cloth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
* Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927) “cloṫ”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* clothe, clooth, clath, clathe, cloþ, cloþe, clooþ, claþ, claþe, cloð, clað, kloth, klathe, clotȝ, cloyth, kloyt

### Etymology

From Old English clāþ, from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą.

### Pronunciation

* (Early Middle English, Northern) IPA: /klɑːθ/
* IPA: /klɔːθ/

### Noun

cloth (plural clothes or close)
* Cloth; fabric or an individual piece of it, especially made by weaving:
** Table linen; a decorative cloth for the table.
** A blanket or sheet; bed linen.
** An ornamental cloth or carpet with fine detailing.
** A specific standard length or area of cloth.
** A cloth used to filter or sieve unwanted materials (usually in the kitchen).
** c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎, published c. 1410, Matheu 3:12, page 2r, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:whos wynewing cloþ is in his hond .· ⁊ he ſchal fulli clenſe his coꝛn flooꝛ / and he ſchal gadere his wheete in to his berne .· but þe chaf he ſchal bꝛenne wiþ fier þat mai not be quenchidHis winnowing fan is in his hand; he'll fully clean his threshing-floor, he'll gather up his wheat into his barn, and he'll burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.
** The cloth babies are wrapped in; babywear.
* (often in the plural) An item of clothes; a garment; something to be worn.
* Clothes, apparel; what is worn.
** c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎, published c. 1410, Apocalips 4:4, page 118v, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:⁊ in þe cumpas of þe ſeete.· weren foure ⁊ twentı ſmale ſeetıs ⁊ abouen þe troones foure ⁊ twentı eldere men ſıttynge. hılıd aboute wıþ whıte cloþıs.· ⁊ in þe heedıs of hem golden coꝛounsAnd around the perimeter of the seat there were twenty-four small seats, and on those seats twenty-four elders sat, wearing white clothing and having golden crowns on their heads.
* (Late Middle English) A bodily tissue or layer.
* (Late Middle English, rare) An illness or medical condition evident from boils.

#### Derived terms

* bordcloth
* clothen
* clother
* clothing
* clothles

#### Descendants

* English: cloth
* Scots: clath, clathe, claith

#### References

* “clōth, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-26.

## Old Irish
### Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *klutom (compare Welsh clod), nominalization of Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós (“famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). Cognate with Ancient Greek κλυτός (klutós, “famous”), Sanskrit श्रुत (śruta, “famous”), and English loud.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kloθ/

### Noun

cloth n (genitive cluith, nominative plural clotha)
* fame, honor
* reputation

#### Declension

* $^H$ = triggers aspiration
* $^L$ = triggers lenition
* $^N$ = triggers nasalization

#### Descendants

* Middle Irish: cloth
** Irish: cloth
* Scottish Gaelic: clòth

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “cloth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language