clothe
Americanverb
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to dress or attire (a person)
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to provide with clothing or covering
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to conceal or disguise
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to endow or invest
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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preclotheverb (used with object)
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reclotheverb (used with object)
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half-clothedadjective
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underclothedadjective
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well-clothedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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clothesimple
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clothessimple
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have cladperfect
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have clothedperfect
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has cladperfect
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has clothedperfect
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am clothingprogressive
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are clothingprogressive
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is clothingprogressive
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have been clothingperfect progressive
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has been clothingperfect progressive
Past
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clothedsimple
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had cladperfect
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had clothedperfect
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was clothingprogressive
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were clothingprogressive
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had been clothingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clothe
before 950; Middle English clothen, Old English clāthian, derivative of clāth cloth
Explanation
To clothe someone is to give them something to wear, or to dress them in clothing. If you clothe your dog in cute outfits, you may traumatize him for life. You can clothe yourself, or someone else — for example, you might clothe yourself in black for a relative's funeral or clothe yourself in sequins and feathers for the school dance. You can also figuratively clothe someone or something, lending them a sense of power or respectability. Clothe shares a root with clothing and cloth, the Old English claþ, "cloth or sail," and also "woven material to wrap around oneself."
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.
See Examples For:
“If I have money, I can dream of many things. But if I have no money, how do we eat? How do we clothe ourselves? Where would we live?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Feed the hungry, help the poor, heal the sick, house the homeless, clothe the naked, welcome strangers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2024
"In the cost of living crisis, people have struggled to feed and clothe their children," she said.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2024
But he said it was entirely consistent with Francis’ call for artists to engage with the poor and the Gospel mandate to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and visit the incarcerated.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
He worked ten hours a day and came home with barely enough energy to play with his kids and barely enough money to feed and clothe them.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
At one training company visited by AFP, humans holding what looked like PlayStation controllers repeated a single task -- folding clothes, moving blocks, spraying a canister -- as humanoid partners mirrored their actions.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Indio Police said they believe the clothes fell off a golf cart and were not taken deliberately.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
“What did I get myself into?” he asked, finding kitchen equipment, furniture, clothes, bottles, a family picture, and wooden planks with nails pointing upward coating the floor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Jade also welcomed an appeal by Willenhall councillor Simran Cheema who appealed to "our wonderful Willenhall community" on Facebook for shoes and clothes for Paula.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
I never could understand all the fuss over clothes.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
One morning in April, a bleary-eyed Michelle plopped into bed fully clothed after completing her grueling 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. shift.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Over the course of American history, women have been expected to do whatever work is necessary to keep their families fed, clothed and sheltered in sanitary homes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
“We love to do what we do on farms — keeping people fed, clothed and moving. But we have to be able to make ends meet so we can keep operating.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 21, 2026
In two of the images he is seen touching the person, who is unidentified and fully clothed, on her stomach.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
I didn’t undress, but instead lay on Mamá’s bed fully clothed with my back to the door.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
My stomach was in knots as I pictured myself clad in a lemon chiffon dress looking like a dollop of meringue, doing the Viennese waltz — something resembling a Centrum Silver commercial.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Under a blazing sun, clad in black and clutching portraits of their slain leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian pilgrims streamed across the border into Iraq to observe the Arbaeen, the most revered event in Shia Islam.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
A planning application, lodged in March, would have seen the building clad in a false façade including an advertising screen to hide building work prior to the fire.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
He was clad in shorts and a T-shirt, barefooting around his $42 million Nantucket estate while his 20-something girlfriend, Camryn D’Aloia, and two rescue dogs followed their own rhythm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
“I kept it for many years,” Mudgett wrote, “and the thin terror-stricken face of that bare-footed, home-spun clad boy I can yet see.”
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Oxford Economics anticipates that manufacturers who stand to be most impacted include those in the cement, paper, printing, wood, clothing and electronics equipment sectors.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Beth Goldstein, a footwear- and accessories-industry adviser at Circana, said that flats go well with other clothing and are more adaptable than sandals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Much of the price data comes from hundreds of BLS employees who fan out across the country every month to check prices at supermarkets, doctors’ offices, clothing stores and the like.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
It provides school uniforms, new shoes and general clothing items.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
By now Baby Max had turned red as, well, a beet, and Svetlana hurriedly took off several of his many layers of clothing and dabbed cool water on his face.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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.
