nightcloth

Noun

nightcloth (plural nightcloths)

1. A cloth placed over a birdcage, used to simulate the darkness of night and settle the bird(s) into sleep.
   • When the O’Haras were ten paces away, the bird suddenly swooped off the miner’s shoulder—the miner took no notice—and flew to a table on top of which reposed an elegant metal cage with a frilly nightcloth rolled up at the top. […] The fat woman rolled the nightcloth down over the cage and its...1976, Jack Foxx [pseudonym; Bill Pronzini], Freebooty: A Novel of Suspense, Indianapolis, Ind.; New York, N.Y.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., →ISBN, pages 69–70
   • Quiet settled over the manager’s office like the night[-]cloth over Sister Angela’s canary cage, leaving each one to brood on his or her own thoughts.1993, Carol Anne O’Marie, Murder Makes a Pilgrimage, Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 201
2. (rare) A nightgown.
   • (1895.) July 1, 1677.—Lady Mary Fletcher to her niece, Katherine Fleming. Pray tell your father that I omitted two suits of ribbon, a laced apron, and laced nightcloth, and a fan, all of which are necessaries as well as the smocks of which I said nothing.1890, The Manuscripts of S. H. Le Fleming, Esq., of Rydal Hall (Historical Manuscripts Commission. Twelfth Report, Appendix, Part VII.), London: […] [F]or Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, by Eyre and...
   • The public was particularly unappreciative of the 1808-1814 Classic Head type which presented “a sleepy-looking Liberty turbaned with a diaphanous nightcloth,” and promptly dubbed her the “Blowsy Barmaid.”1978, Carl Allenbaugh, Coins: Questions and Answers, 3rd edition, Iola, Wis.: Krause Publications, →ISBN, page 42