From Middle English cloud, from Old English clūd (“mass of stone, rock, boulder, hill”), from Proto-West Germanic *klūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, *klutaz (“lump, mass, conglomeration”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, clench”). Cognate with Scots clood, clud (“cloud”), Dutch kluit (“lump, mass, clod”), German Low German Kluut, Kluute (“lump, mass, ball”), German Kloß (“lump, ball, dumpling”), Danish klode (“sphere, orb, planet”), Swedish klot (“sphere, orb, ball, globe”), Icelandic klót (“knob on a sword's hilt”). Related to English clod, clot, clump, club. Largely replaced Middle English wolken, from Old English wolcn (whence Modern English welkin), the commonest Germanic word (compare Dutch wolk, German Wolke).
A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air.
While he thus ſpake, there came a cloud, and ouerſhadowed them, ⁊ they feared, as they entred into the cloude.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 9:34:
So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
2
Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass.
Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
3
Anything which makes things foggy or gloomy.
But in one part of the horizon a cloud lay, and the rulers of India were oppressed with a sense of coming disaster. This cloud had begun to form in 1873, and had been continually growing larger; it threw a shadow over gold-debtor nations, and shed a depressing influence over gold-using countries.1898, Edward Frere Marriott, “Papers relating to India”, in Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Committee Appointed to Inquire Into the Indian Currency, No. 37. Memorandum by Captain Edward Frere Marriott. I.S.C., page 76:
A group or swarm, especially suspended above the ground or flying.
He opened the door and was greeted by a cloud of bats.
so great a cloud of witnesses1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 12:1:
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The place was horribly haunted by clouds of mosquitoes and every form of flying pest, so we were glad to find solid ground again and to make a circuit among the trees, which enabled us to outflank this pestilent morass, which droned like an organ in the distance, so loud was it with insect life.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
7
An elliptical shape or symbol whose outline is a series of semicircles, supposed to resemble a cloud.
The comic-book character's thoughts appeared in a cloud above his head.
With definite article The Internet, regarded as an abstract amorphous omnipresent space for processing and storage, the focus of cloud computing.
Cloud computing
Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
[…]the cloud could do this, it could do that. The cloud could be powerful and intelligent. It became a business buzzword and a selling point.2018, James Bridle, The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, Verso Books, →ISBN:
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“But there’s no fucking cloud,” says Crabapple, “there’s other people’s computers. There are vast datacentres that are sucking up water and electricity and rare-earth metals, literally boiling up the planet […]”2024 February 17, Tom Lamont, quoting Molly Crabapple, “‘Humanity’s remaining timeline? It looks more like five years than 50’: meet the neo-luddites warning of an AI apocalypse”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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Figuratively A negative or foreboding aspect of something positive: see every cloud has a silver lining or every silver lining has a cloud.
But when he found that some of his interrogatories were evaded, and others answered undecisively, the look of gentleness which he had assumed, vanished, and his brow wore the cloud of disappointment and of anger.1798, Eleanor Sleath, The Orphan of the Rhine:
The only cloud on their night was that injury to Rafael, who was followed off the pitch by his anxious brother Fabio as he was stretchered away down the tunnel.2011 January 25, Phil McNulty, “Blackpool 2-3 Man Utd”, in BBC:
From Middle English cloud, from Old English clūd (“mass of stone, rock, boulder, hill”), from Proto-West Germanic *klūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, *klutaz (“lump, mass, conglomeration”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, clench”). Cognate with Scots clood, clud (“cloud”), Dutch kluit (“lump, mass, clod”), German Low German Kluut, Kluute (“lump, mass, ball”), German Kloß (“lump, ball, dumpling”), Danish klode (“sphere, orb, planet”), Swedish klot (“sphere, orb, ball, globe”), Icelandic klót (“knob on a sword's hilt”). Related to English clod, clot, clump, club. Largely replaced Middle English wolken, from Old English wolcn (whence Modern English welkin), the commonest Germanic word (compare Dutch wolk, German Wolke).
To become foggy or gloomy, or obscured from sight.
The glass clouds when you breathe on it.
2
To overspread or hide with a cloud or clouds.
The sky is clouded.
3
Of the breath, to become cloud; to turn into mist.
The horses stamping Their warm breath clouding In the sharp and frosty morning Of the day.1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull:
4
To make obscure.
All this talk about human rights is clouding the real issue.
5
To make less acute or perceptive.
Your emotions are clouding your judgement.
The tears began to well up and cloud my vision.
6
To make gloomy or sullen.
One day too late, I fear me, noble lord, Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
Be not disheartened, then, nor cloud those looks.1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
7
To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish (reputation or character).
I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without My present vengeance taken.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
8
To mark with, or darken in, veins or sports; to variegate with colors.
to cloud yarn
The nice conduct of a clouded cane1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, canto IV:
9
To become marked, darkened or variegated in this way.