cloak

n.

1. A loose outer garment, such as a cape.
2. Something that covers or conceals: a cloak of secrecy.

tr.v., cloaked, cloak·ing, cloaks.
To cover or conceal with or as if with a cloak. See synonyms at clothe, disguise, hide¹.

[Middle English cloke, from Old North French cloque, cloak, bell (from its shape), from Medieval Latin clocca. See clock¹.]

(1) Displaying Web page content differently to search engine spiders than to humans in order to achieve higher rankings in search engine results. Pages with more keywords on a subject tend to rank higher than those with fewer keywords, but excessive repetition of a word makes a Web page look amateurish, if not downright silly.

JavaScript and AJAX code are widely used to hide extra text when they detect a user, but allow the repetitive text to appear for a search engine spider. An older and rather simple method was to display white text on a white background.

Aggressive marketers generate thousands of cloaked pages ("phantom pages") highly tuned for the search engines (see shadow domain).

IP Delivery

Advanced cloaking is known as "IP delivery," which redirects the visitor to the appropriate Web page based on IP address. For example, an e-mail harvesting program visiting the site to find more people to spam should neither be directed to the real site for people nor the cloaked site for spiders, but to a page that is void of e-mail addresses and links to other pages. See shadow domain, search engine optimization, spider and Web spam.

(2) Disabling the SSID broadcasting in a Wi-Fi access point, which is the continuous announcement of its presence so that portable devices can log in. See SSID broadcast.

Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your iPhone/iTouch

noun

1. A garment wrapped about a person: shawl, stole, wrap. See put on/take off.
2. A deceptive outward appearance: color, coloring, cover, disguise, disguisement, façade, face, false colors, front, gloss, guise, mask, masquerade, pretense, pretext, semblance, show, veil, veneer, window-dressing. Slang put-on. See show/hide.

verb

1. To cover as if with clothes: clothe, drape, mantle, robe. See put on/take off.
2. To surround and cover completely so as to obscure: clothe, enfold, enshroud, envelop, enwrap, infold, invest, shroud, veil, wrap. See show/hide.
3. To prevent (something) from being known: conceal, cover (up), enshroud, hide, hush (up), mask, shroud, veil. Idioms: keep under cover, keep under wraps. See show/hide.

v

Definition: cover
Antonyms: uncover

v

Definition: disguise
Antonyms: reveal, uncloak, uncover

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IN BRIEF: A loose outer item of clothing. Also: Something that covers or hides.

They moved carefully under the cloak of night.

Tutor's tip: She found a small "clock" (device to measure time) in the "cloaca" (internal cavity in birds and fish) of the fish, so she put it under her "cloak" (cape) to take it home.

All forms of cover-up are denoted by this word, including the mysterious and the macabre depicted in the expression "cloak-and-dagger operation." In a dream, wearing a cloak as a garment might suggest the dreamer needs to feel protected or is trying to cover up something.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kappe, slag, maske, skalkeskjul, slør
v. tr. - indhylle i en kappe, tildække, dække over, tilsløre

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    mystisk, mystifistisk

Nederlands (Dutch)
cape, bedekking, bedekken met cape, verbergen

Français (French)
n. - cape, houppelande, (fig) couverture
v. tr. - entourer qch de, masquer (ses intentions)

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    de cape et épée, d'espionnage, clandestin

Deutsch (German)
n. - Umhang, Mantel
v. - (ein)hüllen, verhüllen

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    mysteriös, Spionage-

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μανδύας, κάπα, ελαφρό (γυναικείο) πανωφόρι, μαντό, (μτφ.) πέπλο, πρόσχημα
v. - ντύνω, περιβάλλω, (μτφ.) μασκαρεύω, αποκρύπτω

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    μυστηριώδους και ρομαντικής πλοκής

Italiano (Italian)
mantello

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    cappa e spada

Português (Portuguese)
n. - manto (m), cobertura (f), disfarce (m)
v. - cobrir com manto ou capa, ocultar

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    de capa e espada

Русский (Russian)
мантия

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    шпионский

Español (Spanish)
n. - capa, manto
v. tr. - encapar, cubrir, encapotar

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    de capa y espada, de espionaje, del servicio secreto

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kappa, täckmantel (bildl.), täcke
v. - svepa in, dölja (bildl.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
斗蓬, 掩护, 宽大外衣, 遮掩, 披斗蓬, 隐匿

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    有关阴谋或间谍的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 斗蓬, 掩護, 寬大外衣
v. tr. - 遮掩, 披斗蓬, 隱匿

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    有關陰謀或間諜的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 외투, 망토, 은폐물
v. tr. - 걸치고 있다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 外套, マント, 覆い隠すもの, 仮面
v. - 覆う

idioms:

• cloak and dagger    陰謀, スパイ活動

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عباة, جبه, قفطان, غطاء (فعل) غطى, ستر, حجب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮גלימה, מעטה, מסווה‬
v. tr. - ‮כיסה, הסתיר, הסווה‬

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Crochet Cloak