Word.ws English Dictionary

draw the cloth

draw the cloth verb: to clear the table after a meal.

Verb

draw the cloth (third-person singular simple present draws the cloth, present participle drawing the cloth, simple past drew the cloth, past participle drawn the cloth)

  1. (archaic) To clear the table after a meal.
    • The silence of our meal was alone broken by the dull clattering of knives and forks, and the tinkling of the bell to summon the brisk waiter to bring wine and draw the cloth.1855, Susanna Moodie, Geoffrey Moncton, page 327
    • At last, when the cloth had been drawn and the King's health drunk in a glass of port suited to a very young head, they took their coffee and ratafia biscuits (the sea-going equivalent of petits fours) in the great cabin.1996, Patrick O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral, page 174

Synonyms of draw the cloth

Antonyms

Forms of draw the cloth

third-person singular presentdraws the cloth
present participledrawing the cloth
pastdrew the cloth
past participledrawn the cloth

Questions about draw the cloth

What does draw the cloth mean?
Draw the cloth means to clear the table after a meal.
What part of speech is draw the cloth?
Draw the cloth is a verb.
What is the past tense of draw the cloth?
The past tense of draw the cloth is drew the cloth.

Words near draw the cloth in the dictionary

  1. draw sheet
  2. draw sheets
  3. draw soup
  4. draw straws
  5. draw stumps
  6. draw the cloth
  7. draw the curtains
  8. draw the line
  9. draw the long bow
  10. draw the longbow
  11. draw the short straw

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: draw the cloth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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