Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Cloth

Cloth, n.; pl. Cloths (#; 115), except in the sense of garments, when it is Clothes (klōthz or klōz). [OE. clath cloth, AS. clāþ cloth, garment; akin to D. kleed, Icel. klæði, Dan. klæde, cloth, Sw. kläde, G. kleid garment, dress.] 1. A fabric made of fibrous material (or sometimes of wire, as in wire cloth); commonly, a woven fabric of cotton, woolen, or linen, adapted to be made into garments; specifically, woolen fabrics, as distinguished from all others.

2. The dress; raiment. [Obs.] See Clothes.

I'll ne'er distust my God for cloth and bread. Quarles.

3. The distinctive dress of any profession, especially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession.

Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth? Macaulay.

The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to . . . every axiom. I. Taylor.

Body cloth. See under Body. — Cloth of gold, a fabric woven wholly or partially of threads of gold. — Cloth measure, the measure of length and surface by which cloth is measured and sold. For this object the standard yard is usually divided into quarters and nails. — Cloth paper, a coarse kind of paper used in pressing and finishing woolen cloth. — Cloth shearer, one who shears cloth and frees it from superfluous nap.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.