clothe

What it means

1. transitiveTo adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing.

   to feed and clothe a family; to clothe oneself extravagantly

   3 more examples

   Go with me to clothe you as becomes you.

   c. 1590-92, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, act IV, scene ii

   For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 23:21

   The naked every day he clad, / When he put on his clothes.

   1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: dight

2. figurativelyTo cover or invest, as if with a garment.

   to clothe somebody with authority or power

   4 more examples

   words clothed in reason's garb

   1667, John Milton, “Book II”, 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

   His sides are clothed with waving wood.

   1726, John Dyer, Grongar Hill

   language in which they can clothe their thoughts

   1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC

   Steep frowning mountains, their upper slopes clothed with dark pine woods and their lofty summits capped with snow for many months of the year.

   1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 164

In a sentence

to feed and clothe a family; to clothe oneself extravagantly

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*gley-“to adhere to, stick”
2. Proto-Germanic*klaiþōną“to clothe”
3. Old English*clāþian“to clothe”
4. Middle Englishclothen
5. Englishclothe

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.