ne'er cast a clout till May be out

alternative cast not a clout till May be out

1. UKdialectalDo not change from winter clothes to summer clothes until June, as there is often a sudden cold snap in May.

   Leave not off a Clout, / Till May be out.

   [1732, Thomas Fuller, compiler, Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British, London: […] B. Barker […]; and A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, […], →OCLC, paragraph 6193, page 276

   5 more examples

   There is another ungracious rhyme about this favourite month of the poets— / Till May be out / Change na a clout: / That is, thin not your winter-clothing till the end of May—a good maxim if we are to put faith in the great father of modern medicine, [Herman] Boerhaave, who, on being consulted as to the proper time for putting off flannel, is said to have answered, "On Midsummer night, and—put it on again next morning!"

   [1834 February 8, “Popular Rhymes. The Weather.”, in William Chambers, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, volume III, number 106, Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, […]; [William Somerville] Orr and Smith, […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 16, column 2

   Of old it was said,— / "Ne'er cast a clout / Till May is out." / More recently the version is, / "No garment cast / Till May be past." / The advice is the same, but how different the style!

   1849 May 4, “To Correspondents. [Poetry.]”, in The Liverpool Mercury, and Lancashire, Cheshire, and General Advertiser, volume XXXIX, number 2088, Liverpool: Thomas Rogerson, […], and John Smith, […], at the Mercury and General Printing Establishment, […], →OCLC, page 286

   The defenses against him [the month of March] should be more carefully watched than those of the depth of Winter. Fires are left to smolder down in the warmth of the day until the house is thoroughly chilled, and a sudden damp wind springs up in the afternoon and carries disease and death into the open windows. "Till May be out, Ne'er cast a clout," is counsel as good as homely.

   [1875 March 9, “March”, in New-York Tribune, volume XXXIV, number 10,588, New York, N.Y.: [s.n.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 5

   In this sense the Boeotian poetry may be taken to have its germ in maxims similar to our English / "Till May be out, ne'er cast a clout," / or / "A rainbow in the morning / Is the Shepherd's warning."

   [1914, Hugh G[erard] Evelyn-White, “Introduction”, in Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and Homerica […] (Loeb Classical Library; no. 57), London: William Heinemann; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co., →OCLC, page xi

   Proverbs emphasise the protective function of clothes, which are valued more highly if they protect from heat or cold, rain or sun: […] It was better to wear too much than too little, and one should not be in too much of a hurry to shed one's winter clothes at the first sign of fine weather: ‘Ne’er cast a clout till May be out.’

   1994, Daniel Roche, “Caring for Clothes: From Propriety to Cleanliness”, in Jean Birrell, transl., The Culture of Clothing: Dress and Fashion in the ‘Ancien Régime’ (Past and Present Publications), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1999, →ISBN, part 3 (Producing, Selling and Stealing: The Distribution of Appearances), page 377