# cloak

Pronunciation: say "KLOHK" US /ˈkloʊk/, UK /kləʊk/

## Noun

1. A long outer garment that hangs from the shoulders to cover the back, like a cape and often with a hood.
   - Simple: A long piece of clothing, like a cape, that hangs from your shoulders and often has a hood.
   - _He swung a heavy velvet cloak around his shoulders before stepping out into the snow._
   - _The actors' cloaks hung on hooks backstage, ready for the second act._
3. Something used to hide what is really going on, such as a disguise or a pretext.
   - Simple: Something that hides the truth, like a disguise or a false reason.
   - _The small trading company served as a cloak for smuggling weapons._
   - _The spies entered the country under the cloak of a scientific expedition._
5. A covering that spreads over something like a blanket, often in a figurative sense.
   - Simple: Something that covers a place like a blanket, such as snow or darkness.
   - _A thick cloak of fog settled over the harbor overnight._
   - _The old chimney had disappeared under a cloak of ivy._
7. On IRC, a piece of text shown in place of a user's hostname or IP address, making the user harder to identify.
   - Simple: On some chat networks, text shown instead of a user's internet address, so the user is harder to find.
   - _The network grants cloaks to registered users so their home IP addresses stay private._
   - _Her cloak read 'project/developer' instead of her internet provider's hostname._

## Verb

2. To cover up or conceal something so that it cannot be seen or known.
   - Simple: To hide something so that other people cannot see it or know about it.
   - _Politicians often cloak unpopular plans in vague language._
   - _The talks were cloaked in secrecy until the deal was signed._
4. To cover something in the way a cloak covers the person wearing it.
   - Simple: To cover something, the way a cape covers a person.
   - _Mist and low cloud often cloak the summit in winter._
   - _A soft silk shawl cloaked her shoulders against the evening chill._
6. In science fiction, to make something invisible, or to become invisible, by means of futuristic technology.
   - Simple: In stories set in the future, to become invisible, or make something invisible, using special technology.
   - _Stealth fighters in the film can cloak at will, slipping past enemy patrols unseen._
   - _The engineers found a way to cloak the entire station from enemy sensors._

## Origin

From Middle English cloke, from Old Northern French cloque, "travelling cloak", from Medieval Latin clocca, "traveller's cape", literally "a bell", so called from the garment's bell-like shape. The Latin word is of Celtic origin, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos, ultimately imitative; cloak is a doublet of cloche and clock.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cloak (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).