Clouds

cloud  (kloud)

n.

1.

a. A visible body of very fine water droplets or ice particles suspended in the atmosphere at altitudes ranging up to several miles above sea level.

b. A mass, as of dust, smoke, or steam, suspended in the atmosphere or in outer space.

2. A large moving body of things in the air or on the ground; a swarm: a cloud of locusts.

3. Something that darkens or fills with gloom.

4. A dark region or blemish, as on a polished stone.

5. Something that obscures.

6. Suspicion or a charge affecting a reputation.

7. A collection of charged particles: an electron cloud.

v. cloud·ed, cloud·ing, clouds

v.tr.

1. To cover with or as if with clouds: Mist clouded the hills.

2. To make gloomy or troubled.

3. To obscure: cloud the issues.

4. To cast aspersions on; sully: Scandal clouded the officer's reputation.

v.intr.

To become cloudy or overcast: The sky clouded over.

Idiom:

in the clouds

1. Imaginary; unreal; fanciful.

2. Impractical.

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[Middle English, hill, cloud, from Old English cld, rock, hill.]

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cloudless adj.

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Clouds

See also atmosphere; rain; snow; weather.

ceilometer

an instrument for measuring by triangulation and recording the distance between the earth and the cloud ceiling.

nephelognosy

divination by the observation of clouds.

nepheloscope

an apparatus for expanding moist air to demonstrate the process of cloud formation.

nephogram

a photograph of clouds, taken with a nephograph.

nephograph

an instrument for photographing clouds and producing nephrograms.

nephology

the branch of meteorology that studies clouds. — nephologic, nephological, adj. — nephologist, n.

nephophobia

an abnormal fear of clouds.

noctilucence

the condition of being visible during the short summer nights, especially high-altitude clouds. — noctilucent adj.

nubilation

1. the formation or arrangement of clouds.
2. the obscuration caused by clouds.