cloud

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A visible body of very fine water droplets or ice particles suspended in the atmosphere at altitudes ranging up to several miles above sea level.
2. n. A mass, as of dust, smoke, or steam, suspended in the atmosphere or in outer space.
3. n. A large moving body of things in the air or on the ground; a swarm: a cloud of locusts.
4. n. Something that darkens or fills with gloom.
5. n. A dark region or blemish, as on a polished stone.
6. n. Something that obscures.
7. n. Suspicion or a charge affecting a reputation.
8. n. A collection of charged particles: an electron cloud.
9. v. To cover with or as if with clouds: Mist clouded the hills.
10. v. To make gloomy or troubled.
11. v. To obscure: cloud the issues.
12. v. To cast aspersions on; sully: Scandal clouded the officer's reputation.
13. v. To become cloudy or overcast: The sky clouded over.
14. idiom. in the clouds Imaginary; unreal; fanciful.
15. idiom. in the clouds Impractical.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A collection of visible vapor or watery particles suspended in the air at a considerable altitude. A like collection of vapors upon the earth is called fog. The average height of the clouds is estimated at between two and three miles, but it varies at different times of the year. The forms of clouds are indefinitely variable; they are commonly classified roughly as follows:
2. n. A semblance of a cloud, or something spread out like or having some effect of a cloud: commonly followed by a specification: as, a cloud of dust; a ship under a cloud of canvas (that is, a large spread of sails).
3. n. A clouded appearance; a dark area of color over a lighter material, or the reverse, as bloom upon a varnished surface.
4. n. In zoology, an illdefined, obscure, or indistinct spot or mark, often a spot produced by the internal structure seen through a semi-transparent surface.
5. n. Anything that obscures, darkens, threatens, or the like.
6. n. A multitude; a collection; a throng.
7. n. A woman's head-wrap made of loosely knit wool.
8. n. Absorbed in day-dreams; visionary; absent-minded; abstracted.
9. n. Out of ordinary comprehension; in the realms of fancy or non-reality.
10. n. = Syn. 1. Haze, Fog, etc. See rain, n.
11. To overspread with a cloud or clouds: as, the sky is clouded.
12. Hence To cover as if with clouds: in various figurative applications, as to obscure, darken, render gloomy or sullen, etc.: said of aspect or mood.
13. To variegate with spots or waves of a darker color appearing as if laid on over a lighter, or the reverse: as, to cloud a panel; a clouded sky in a picture.
14. To place under a cloud, as of misfortune, disgrace, etc.; sully; tarnish: as, his character was clouded with suspicion.
15. To grow cloudy; become obscured with clouds: sometimes with up.
16. n. A rock; a hill.
17. n. Feussner's method, which consists in observing the location on the map of the shadow of a cloud and at the same time observing the altitude of the sun. The formulæ needed for calculation are given in Abbe's “Meteorological Apparatus and Methods” (1887).
18. n. The kinematic method (employed in connection with Abbe's marine nephoscope), in which observations give two zenithal apparent movements of the cloud for two corresponding known movements of the observer on a boat or wagon: eight quantities, that is directions and rates of motion, are thus known which are introduced into the analytical trigonometrical equation, and the true altitude and motion of the cloud are found by elimination.
19. n. Lambert's method, which consists in observing the velocity of the shadow of the cloud on the ground and also the apparent angular velocity of the cloud at the zenith, whence the altitude or distance is calculated by trigonometrical formulæ.
20. n. Trigonometric methods, which involve the use of the cloud-theodolite, photogrammeter, or cloud-camera.
21. n. Espy's dew-point method of determining the altitude of the base of a cloud, which assumes that the altitude of the base is equal to the depression of the dew-point expressed in centigrade degrees multiplied by 100 meters or expressed in degrees Fahrenheit multiplied by 186 feet.

Wiktionary

1. n. obsolete A rock; boulder; a hill.
2. n. A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air.
3. n. Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass.
4. n. Anything which makes things foggy or gloomy.
5. n. A group or swarm, especially suspended above the ground or flying.
6. n. An elliptical shape or symbol whose outline is a series of semicircles, supposed to resemble a cloud.
7. n. computing, with the The Internet, regarded as an amorphous omnipresent space for processing and storage, the focus of cloud computing.
8. n. figuratively A negative aspect of something positive: see every cloud has a silver lining or every silver lining has a cloud.
9. n. slang crystal methamphetamine
10. v. To become foggy or gloomy, to become obscured from sight.
11. v. To make obscure (e.g. to cloud the issue).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A collection of visible vapor, or watery particles, suspended in the upper atmosphere.
2. n. A mass or volume of smoke, or flying dust, resembling vapor.
3. n. A dark vein or spot on a lighter material, as in marble; hence, a blemish or defect.
4. n. That which has a dark, lowering, or threatening aspect; that which temporarily overshadows, obscures, or depresses.
5. n. A great crowd or multitude; a vast collection.
6. n. A large, loosely-knitted scarf, worn by women about the head.
7. v. To overspread or hide with a cloud or clouds.
8. v. To darken or obscure, as if by hiding or enveloping with a cloud; hence, to render gloomy or sullen.
9. v. To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish; to damage; -- esp. used of reputation or character.
10. v. To mark with, or darken in, veins or sports; to variegate with colors; as, to cloud yarn.
11. v. To grow cloudy; to become obscure with clouds; -- often used with up.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make milky or dull
2. v. place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
3. v. make gloomy or depressed
4. v. billow up in the form of cloud
5. n. suspicion affecting your reputation
6. n. a visible mass of water or ice particles suspended at a considerable altitude
7. v. make less visible or unclear
8. n. out of touch with reality
9. v. colour with streaks or blotches of different shades
10. v. make less clear
11. n. a group of many things in the air or on the ground
12. v. make overcast or cloudy
13. n. any collection of particles (e.g., smoke or dust) or gases that is visible
14. n. a cause of worry or gloom or trouble