cloak
Americannoun
-
cloaks
plural
verb (used with object)
-
cloaks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cloaked,
past participle, past
-
cloaking
present participle
-
to cover with or as if with a cloak.
She arrived at the opera cloaked in green velvet.
-
to hide; conceal.
The mission was cloaked in mystery.
noun
-
a wraplike outer garment fastened at the throat and falling straight from the shoulders
-
something that covers or conceals
verb
-
to cover with or as if with a cloak
-
to hide or disguise
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cloaksimple
-
cloakssimple
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have cloakedperfect
-
has cloakedperfect
-
am cloakingprogressive
-
are cloakingprogressive
-
is cloakingprogressive
-
have been cloakingperfect progressive
-
has been cloakingperfect progressive
Past
-
cloakedsimple
-
had cloakedperfect
-
was cloakingprogressive
-
were cloakingprogressive
-
had been cloakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cloak
1175–1225; Middle English cloke (< Old French ) < Medieval Latin cloca, variant of clocca bell-shaped cape, bell; see clock 1
Explanation
A cloak is anything that conceals or hides something, like an over-sized, dark raincoat you wear when you don't want your friends to see you're going to the movies without them. As a noun, a cloak is usually a loose piece of clothing that you wear over your other clothes, like a cape or a gown. It especially refers to an outer garment that you might wear while traveling in order to protect your outfit or to conceal your identity. As a verb, to cloak is to conceal or hide something. If you were a famous person who wanted to go out alone, you might cloak your identity with a cloak.
Vocabulary lists containing cloak
The Balcony Scene from "Romeo and Juliet"
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"Encounter"
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Unit 2: Pivotal Words and Phrases
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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:
"A real thermal cloak should work no matter where the heat comes from," Zhang said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
Scientists have developed and tested the first three-dimensional thermal invisibility cloak, a device that can conceal objects from infrared cameras while protecting them from extreme temperatures.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
And regardless of the metaphorical or philosophical cloak it may eventually wrap itself in, the show’s main function is to bridge one chapter of this franchise to the next.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026
He has also claimed he was illegally removed from Libya to stand trial in the United States after "a cloak and dagger operation conducted in the dead of night".
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
A man leaned casually against the wall of the giant’s mouth, dressed in black armor from head to foot, a midnight-blue cloak covering the armor and the man’s head.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
Irvan Maulana has struggled with shortness of breath and a cough as wildfire smoke cloaks the Indonesian city of Palangkaraya.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
"At night, we had to put on anti-drone cloaks to protect us against thermal cameras, but they would last for 20 minutes at the most."
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
Michael Jackson’s celebrity is so blinding, his music so compelling, that it cloaks him with an almost impenetrable shield from the truth: He was a stone cold pedophile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Here, the evildoers receive sumptuous cloaks along with their metaphorical daggers.
From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2026
And wherever you looked you could see people tightening girths, putting on helmets, drawing swords, and throwing cloaks to the ground.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
It’s cloaked language, but a nod to NIMBYs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Century-old El Floridita is cloaked with metal shutters.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Whatever happens will be cloaked in lies — and followed by gaslighting.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026
The king has moved swiftly to protect it, displaying what James Knox, who has worked closely with Charles, once described to me as “steely determination cloaked in marvelous manners.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
Then a cloaked figure appeared at the turn in the passage, silhouetted in the light.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
That amount was the subject of a Senate investigation into whether Black had intentionally overpaid Epstein, cloaking money paid for personal reasons in the guise of financial services.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
I’m including the comments in full because of how out of character they were for a Fed chair best known for cloaking his future decisions:
From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026
These days, society’s most dangerous villains don’t bother with cloaking themselves despite what the conspiracy-minded choose to believe.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2025
This could allow the development of bioinspired optical materials with possible applications ranging from invisible cloaking devices to coatings to more efficiently harvest solar energy, said Tak-Sing Wong, professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 18, 2024
I instructed it to activate its cloaking device as soon as it dropped out of hyperspace, then locate me on the planet’s surface and land somewhere nearby.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
