- past participle of clothe.
clad
1 Americanverb
adjective
-
dressed.
ill-clad vagrants.
-
covered.
vine-clad cottages.
verb (used with object)
verb
verb
Etymology
Origin of clad1
before 950; Middle English cladd ( e ), Old English clāthod ( e ) clothed. See clothe, -ed 2
Origin of clad2
First recorded in 1935–40; special use of clad 1
Explanation
Clad means "dressed or covered." Most kids go to school clad in jeans and t-shirts, but students in the Shakespeare club might show up clad in velvet gowns or leather breeches. As a verb, clad is the past tense and past particle of “clothe,” as in “the leprechaun clad himself in green.” It’s also an adjective that describes being covered or clothed, so a building can be clad in brick, while a person can be clad in head-to-toe sequins. It’s an old-fashioned word, kind of like “shod,” which means “wearing footwear.”
Vocabulary lists containing clad
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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:
They were clad in the university’s signature burnt orange.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Had they been plastered, clad in ceramic, or built in raw concrete, they would have lent tangible weight and heft to the vaults.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
A posse of extras clad in white jumpsuits and little black aprons would occasionally flood the set, tidying up and moving the furniture into new configurations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
Far from the solemn pomp of the Vatican, nestled under the arcades of the mountain town of Santarcangelo di Romagna, a tailor clad all in black leaned over his sketch.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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It is nearly ten years since the Grenfell Tower fire, but almost 3,000 tower blocks in the UK with dangerous cladding still need to be fixed.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
But the Ministry of Housing said in a statement it would speed up the process of removing cladding, providing a more proportionate, clear and consistent approach to a complex issue.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Sophie Bishener, leaseholder and campaigner with the End our Cladding Scandal group, said that flats with unsafe cladding left unremediated were like "prisons", and this is having a "devastating" impact on people's lives.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The broad strokes of dark composite cladding along the rocker panels, lower front and rear fascia, and around the wheel wells, signal its soft-road sensibilities—as does the 8.5 inches of ground clearance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
The Mini-Manbo, which had special cladding to shield it from radiation and sensors that would allow it to avoid dangerous radiation hot spots, was the right robot for the job.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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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.