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
I take the injunction to welcome the stranger and to feed and clothe very seriously.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2024
Christ emphasized the imperative: Feed and clothe the least of these brothers and sisters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 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
Lee had been their contact with the adult world, and Lee had managed not only to raise, feed, clothe, and dis- cipline the boys, but he had also given them a respect for their father.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
“If they sold children’s clothes they would be 100% off,” one commenter noted.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
At L’Alegria de l’Horta on the Malvarrosa Beach promenade, I sit in pressed clothes and drink fine Valencian wine.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
These are online groups where people give away things they no longer need, like clothes, books and furniture.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
You could be donating clothes to a charity and they could say you’re only doing it for the applause.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
As he took out a small notebook and began to read names from it, I was suddenly conscious of my rumpled clothes, my long, ragged fingernails.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
The men are variously clothed in bloused tops and tights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
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
“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
Two sisters drowned at a national park beauty spot after going for a paddle fully clothed, an inquest has heard.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
In contrast, Europeans in North America are generally shown as being fully clothed, even in the sweltering heat of summer.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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
Next to her was a colleague, Santiago Salazar, 22, clad in his black Mexican World Cup team jersey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
Weaver, a Florida native clad in a navy Cowboys cheerleaders tracksuit during a recent video call, refutes this.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Though the Company was well clad, they seldom felt warm, either moving or at rest.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Beth Goldstein, a footwear- and accessories-industry advisor at Circana, said that flats go well with other clothing and are more adaptable than sandals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
The fall 2026 collection from Georgian brand Lado Bokuchava is a silver grommet fantasia, and Hodakova has been making elegantly articulated spiky clothing for a number of seasons now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
A bald, frumpy man enters a luxury clothing store.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
"We are staying in a tourist area where the shops are predominantly beach shops, with very limited clothing options, particularly for someone with sensory sensitivities," the mum explained.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
There’s a clothing shop that, according to its colorful sign, sells “knickknacks and accessories.”
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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.
