clout
verb/klaʊt/
/klaʊt/
(especially British English, informal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they clout | /klaʊt/ /klaʊt/ |
| he / she / it clouts | /klaʊts/ /klaʊts/ |
| past simple clouted | /ˈklaʊtɪd/ /ˈklaʊtɪd/ |
| past participle clouted | /ˈklaʊtɪd/ /ˈklaʊtɪd/ |
| -ing form clouting | /ˈklaʊtɪŋ/ /ˈklaʊtɪŋ/ |
- clout somebody to hit somebody hard, especially with your hand
- He started to clout me round the head, yelling at the top of his voice.
- Someone clouted me on the left shoulder.
Word OriginOld English clūt (in the sense ‘a patch or metal plate’); related to Dutch kluit ‘lump, clod’, also to cleat and clot. The shift of sense to ‘heavy blow’, which dates from late Middle English, is difficult to explain; possibly the change occurred first in the verb (from ‘put a patch on’ to ‘hit hard’).
Check pronunciation:
clout