clout

noun

1. (countable, informal, uncountable)Influence or effectiveness, especially political.

   “Having relinquished his clout in City Council to run for a place on the county board, and having lost stature by reason of his failure to win the presidency, Duffy was in no position to seek the party chairmanship for himself”

   “[…]ethics officers themselves often complain that they can recommend but have little clout with which to create real change.”

   “But the rise of multiracialism is not all Kumbaya choruses and “postracial” identity. The N.A.A.C.P. criticized the census change, fearing that since so few in the black community are of fully African descent, mass attrition to a mixed-race option could threaten political clout and Federal financing.”

   “The chopped mushrooms add depth to both the Waitrose and the Go-Go Vegan recipe, but what gives the latter some real clout on the flavour front is a teaspoon of Marmite.”

   “It's funny how they judge you when they see you made a change / I poured another four just to take away the pain / My friends weren't my friends, they was ^([sic]) looking for some clout / I had what they wanted so they always came around”

2. (countable, uncountable)A blow with the hand.

   “‘Such a clout on the ear as you gave me… But I soon taught you.’”

   “One of her goons gave him a clout on the ear.”

3. (countable, informal, uncountable)A home run.

   “'... allowed Boston to score all of its runs on homers, including a pair of clouts by Jacoby Ellsbury ...'”

4. (countable, uncountable)The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head.

   “For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at, Our Crowne the pin that thouſands ſeeke to cleaue.”

   “A’ must shoot nearer or he’ll ne’er hit the clout.”

5. (countable, dated, regional, uncountable)A swaddling cloth.

   “When a new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in a grass clout, followed by the nibbling goats, as if he were a green sapling; even then, in Queequeg’s ambitious soul, lurked a strong desire to see something more of Christendom than a specimen whaler or two.”

6. (archaic, countable, uncountable)A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag.

   “His garment nought but many ragged clouts, / With thornes together pind and patched was, / The which his naked sides he wrapt abouts;”

   “If I were mad, I ſhould forget my ſonne, / or madly thinke a babe of clowts were he; I am not mad: too well, too well I feele / The different plague of each clamitie.”

   “[…] a clout upon that head Where late the diadem stood […]”

   “We condol’d with each other, and observ’d how wretchedly we look’d, all naked, except a small Clout about our Middles […]”

   “The Byzantines, wrote Robert of Clari, hooted and jeered from the battlements, "and let down their clouts and showed them their backsides."”

7. (archaic, countable, uncountable)An iron plate on an axletree or other wood to keep it from wearing; a washer.

   “Clouts were thin and flat pieces of iron, used it appears to strengthen the box of the wheel; perhaps also for nailing on such other parts of the cart as were particularly exposed to wear.”

8. (countable, uncountable)A clout nail.
9. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A piece; a fragment.

verb

1. (transitive)To hit (someone or something), especially with the fist.

   “The wolde ſome mayſter perhappes clowt ye / But as for me ye nede nat doute ye / For I had leuer be without ye / Then haue ſuche beſyneſſe aboute ye.”

   “A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?”

2. (transitive)To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage, patch, or mend with a clout.

   “Paul, yea, and Peter, too, had more skill in mending an old net, and in clouting an old tent than to teach lawyers what diligence they should use in the expedition of matters.”

   “There was a cobbler clowting shoon, / When they were mended, they were done.”

3. (transitive)To stud with nails, as a timber, or a boot sole.
4. (transitive)To guard with an iron plate, as an axletree.
5. (transitive)To join or patch clumsily.

   “if fond Bavius vent his clouted song”

6. (alt-of, dated, transitive)Dated form of clot.

   “He tells us how to butter eggs, boil eels, clout cream, stew capons, how to make a fine cake, an almond pudding and a raspberry conserve, […]”