clouder

Noun

cloud (plural clouds)

1. A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air.
   • While he thus ſpake, there came a cloud, and ouerſhadowed them, ⁊ they feared, as they entred into the cloude.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 9:34
2. Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass.
   • Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of...2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29
3. Anything reminiscent of a cloud.
   • The ship moved forward under a cloud of sail.
4. Anything which makes things foggy, unclear or gloomy.
   • But in one part of the horizon a cloud lay, and the rulers of India were oppressed with a sense of coming disaster. This cloud had begun to form in 1873, and had been continually growing larger; it threw a shadow over gold-debtor nations, and shed a depressing influence over gold-using countries.1898, Edward Frere Marriott, “Papers relating to India”, in Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Committee Appointed to Inquire Into the Indian Currency, No. 37. Memorandum by Captain Edward Frere...
5. (figuratively) Anything unsubstantial.
6. A dark spot on a lighter material or background.

See all 25 meanings of cloud