ne'er cast a clout till May be out
/nɛə ˌkɑːst‿ə ˈklaʊt tɪl ˌmeɪ biː ˈaʊt/US/nɛəɹ ˌkæst‿ə ˈklaʊt tɪl ˌmeɪ bi ˈaʊt/
ne'er cast a clout till May be out proverb: do not change from winter clothes to summer clothes until June, as there is often a sudden cold snap in May.
Proverb
ne'er cast a clout till May be out
- Do not change from winter clothes to summer clothes until June, as there is often a sudden cold snap in May.
- Leave not off a Clout, / Till May be out.[1732, Thomas Fuller, compiler, Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British, London: […] B. Barker […]; and A. Bettesworth and C....
- There is another ungracious rhyme about this favourite month of the poets— / Till May be out / Change na a clout: / That is, thin not your winter-clothing till the end of May—a good maxim if we are to put faith in the great father of modern medicine, [Herman] Boerhaave, who, on being consulted as...[1834 February 8, “Popular Rhymes. The Weather.”, in William Chambers, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, volume III, number 106, Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, […]...
Forms of ne'er cast a clout till May be out
| alternative form | cast not a clout till May be out |
|---|
Origin of ne'er cast a clout till May be out
Ne’er is a contraction of never, while clout is an archaic or dialectal word for a piece of clothing.
Words that rhyme with ne'er cast a clout till May be out
42 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- set about
- shout
- sprout
- doubt
- umlaut
- fill out
- grout
- pout
- devout
- drought
- gout
- nowt
- redoubt
- throughout
- without
- ablaut
- dout
- flout
- lout
- mahout
- misdoubt
- mought
- prone out
- strout
- term out
- trout
- zoom out
- 'bout
- anlaut
- aspout
- asprout
- bluff out
- chout
- dought
- knout
- kraut
- layabout
- owt
- peter out
- regrout
- sout
- when in doubt, do nowt
Questions about ne'er cast a clout till May be out
- What does ne'er cast a clout till May be out mean?
- Ne'er cast a clout till May be out means do not change from winter clothes to summer clothes until June, as there is often a sudden cold snap in May.
- What part of speech is ne'er cast a clout till May be out?
- Ne'er cast a clout till May be out is a proverb.
- How do you pronounce ne'er cast a clout till May be out?
- Ne'er cast a clout till May be out is pronounced /nɛə ˌkɑːst‿ə ˈklaʊt tɪl ˌmeɪ biː ˈaʊt/ (UK).
Words near ne'er cast a clout till May be out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ne'er cast a clout till May be out (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ne'er cast a clout till May be out.wav.
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