verb
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to dress or attire (a person)
-
to provide with clothing or covering
-
to conceal or disguise
-
to endow or invest
Other Word Forms
- half-clothed adjective
- preclothe verb (used with object)
- reclothe verb (used with object)
- underclothed adjective
- well-clothed adjective
Etymology
Origin of clothe
before 950; Middle English clothen, Old English clāthian, derivative of clāth cloth
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Happ, who spends several weeks a year helping feed and clothe the poor in Uganda, was an ideal representative for ADF to take on the banking industry.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 18, 2025
I take the injunction to welcome the stranger and to feed and clothe very seriously.
From BBC • Oct. 30, 2024
“Not only is food very expensive, but school supplies have also doubled in price. I also have to clothe my children and, above all, deal with their illnesses,” the 65-year-old said.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 25, 2023
In addition to the jute garments Vargas wove to clothe Argote in for the performance, the show also includes a more straightforward painting, “Pain Body,” made in what Argote calls “ancestral” oil paint.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 7, 2023
Perhaps we will talk more with time, or perhaps we never will be able to say it all, to clothe things in words, things that have long been naked.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.