cloth Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers
    textile; material; fabric.
    • the fabric in the curtains was light and semitransparent
    • woven cloth originated in Mesopotamia around 5000 BC
    • she measured off enough material for a dress

WordNet


Cloth noun
Etymology
OE. clath cloth, AS. claÞ cloth, garment; akin to D. kleed, Icel. klæthi, Dan. klæde, cloth, Sw. kläde, G. kleid garment, dress.
Wordforms
plural Cloths except in the sense of garments, when it is Clothes (klothz ∨ kloz)
Definitions
  1. A fabric made of fibrous material (or sometimes of wire, as in wire cloth); commonly, a woven fabric of cotton, woolen, or linen, adapted to be made into garments; specifically, woolen fabrics, as distinguished from all others.
  2. The dress; raiment. Obs. See Clothes.
    I'll ne'er distust my God for cloth and bread. Quarles.
  3. The distinctive dress of any profession, especially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession.
    Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth? Macaulay.
    The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to . . . every axiom. I. Taylor.

Webster 1913