Clothe

//ˈkləʊð// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing. transitive

    "to feed and clothe a family; to clothe oneself extravagantly"

  2. 2
    provide with clothes or put clothes on wordnet
  3. 3
    To cover or invest, as if with a garment. figuratively

    "to clothe somebody with authority or power"

  4. 4
    cover as if with clothing wordnet
  5. 5
    furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dressappareldressgarmentinvestinvest

Example

More examples

"Those clothe with awe / the Senate; there they choose the judges for the law. / These delve the port; the broad foundations there / they lay for theatres of ample space, / and columns, hewn from marble rocks, prepare, / tall ornaments, the future stage to grace."

Etymology

From Middle English clothen, from Old English *clāþian (“to clothe”), from Proto-Germanic *klaiþōną (“to clothe”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to adhere to, stick”). Cognate with Dutch kleden, German kleiden, Swedish kläda, after apocope klä. See also cloth, clad.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.