cloche
Americannoun
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cloches
plural
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a woman's close-fitting hat with a deep, bell-shaped crown and often a narrow, turned-down brim.
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a bell-shaped glass cover placed over a plant to protect it from frost and to force its growth.
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a bell-shaped metal or glass cover placed over a plate to keep food warm or fresh.
noun
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a bell-shaped cover used to protect young plants
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a woman's almost brimless close-fitting hat, typical of the 1920s and 1930s
Usage
What does cloche mean? A cloche is a type of round, close-fitting hat with a bell-shaped crown that was popularly worn by women in the 1920s and 1930s. Cloches often have a narrow, turned-down brim. They are sometimes called cloche hats. Cloche is also the name of the (often silver) dome used to keep food warm that you typically see in stereotypical images of tuxedoed servers bringing food to tables at fancy restaurants. The word can also refer to other types of serving dishes, especially bell-shaped ones. Cloche can also refer to a cover used to protect plants during early growth. It is sometimes called a garden cloche. Example: Franny is trying to look like a 1920s flapper in her new red cloche, and I think she’s pulling it off.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cloche
1905–10; < French: bell, bell-jar < Medieval Latin clocca. See cloak
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:
On view are examples of bulbous book bindings, acid-etched vases, satin capes, parchment-covered cabinets, angular decanters, diamond-decorated cloche hats, geometric malachite brooches, stark bas-reliefs, Brancusi-faced collar ads, and boxy, black-lacquer screens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
Presented covered by a cloche, you’ll first indulge in the smoke as the dish is revealed before enjoying the two spoonfuls of goodness.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2024
Complimentary cashews are offered — certainly, please — and served with the flourish of a small glass cloche pulled away to present them.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 12, 2023
The flipside was that much of Scotland and the UK remained cool and wet under a cloche of disappointment.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2023
The latter had on a neat gray coat with the traditional pregnant- woman bow at her navel, a black cloche, and a pair of four- button ladies’ galoshes.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Nestled among them, Mariel Rodriguez’s 175-square-foot plot is strewn with experiments: sheets of foil to deter garden rats, raised beds to minimize shadow and plant cloches to partition herbs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2025
Cheese is omnipresent: Supermarkets often have not one but two whole aisles dedicated to the product, and cheese cloches are available in the local equivalent of Target.
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2023
Keeping her fingernails cut short, Mr. Beane made tams, turbans, panamas, sailors and cloches.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2022
As mentioned in the article, be sure to remove the row covers and/or cloches during the day to prevent the sun from overheating and damaging your plants.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2022
They might also be jump started under cloches two to three weeks before the last frost, to make better use of natural soil moisture.
From Gardening Without Irrigation: or without much, anyway by Steve Solomon
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.
