n.
- 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.
- A mass, as of dust, smoke, or steam, suspended in the atmosphere or in outer space.
- A large moving body of things in the air or on the ground; a swarm: a cloud of locusts.
- Something that darkens or fills with gloom.
- A dark region or blemish, as on a polished stone.
- Something that obscures.
- Suspicion or a charge affecting a reputation.
- A collection of charged particles: an electron cloud.
v., cloud·ed, cloud·ing, clouds. v.tr.
- To cover with or as if with clouds: Mist clouded the hills.
- To make gloomy or troubled.
- To obscure: cloud the issues.
- To cast aspersions on; sully: Scandal clouded the officer's reputation.
To become cloudy or overcast: The sky clouded over.
idiom:
in the clouds
- Imaginary; unreal; fanciful.
- Impractical.
[Middle English, hill, cloud, from Old English clūd, rock, hill.]
cloudless cloud'less adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
