clout
noun/klaʊt/
/klaʊt/
- [uncountable] power and influence
- political/financial clout
- I knew his opinion carried a lot of clout with them.
Extra Examples- The companies used their clout to influence policy.
- This movie is an opportunity to increase his clout in Hollywood.
- a politician with enormous clout
- the growing political clout of the army
- The government cannot ignore the growing political clout of the security forces.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- considerable
- enormous
- economic
- …
- carry
- have
- wield
- …
- [countable, usually singular] (especially British English, informal) a hard hit with the hand or a hard object
- You’re not too big for a clout round the ear!
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