Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun plural Articles of dress; wearing apparel; garments.
  • noun plural Bedclothes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Cloths: the older plural of cloth, now used only in composition, and including usually senses 2 and 3, as in clothes-basket, clothes-horse, clothes-line, etc.
  • Garments for the human body; dress; vestments; raiment; vesture.
  • Materials for covering a bed; bedclothes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural Covering for the human body; dress; vestments; vesture; -- a general term for whatever covering is worn, or is made to be worn, for decency or comfort.
  • noun plural The covering of a bed; bedclothes.
  • noun plural See under Body.
  • noun plural (Zoöl.) a small moth of the genus Tinea. The most common species (Tinea flavifrontella) is yellowish white. The larvæ eat woolen goods, furs, feathers, etc. They live in tubular cases made of the material upon which they feed, fastened together with silk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Items of clothing; apparel.
  • noun obsolete Plural form of cloth.
  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of clothe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun clothing in general

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English clāthas, pl. of clāth, cloth.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English cloþes

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

clothe +‎ -s

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Examples

  • Dressed as I was in the mollah bashi’s clothes, my first care was to make such alterations in them that they should not hold me up to suspicion, and this I did for a trifling expense at an old clothes’ shop, although, at the same time, I took care not to part with any of the valuable articles which had fallen into my possession.

    The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan James Morier

  • There was a lawn tennis court and eleven indoor staff, there was fishing and shooting, and adventures for the children, with tree houses and charades; a family orchestra and dressing up in clothes from the huge dressing-up cupboard on wet days.

    Mrs. Miniver 1939

  • As I said, all the knowledge I had about what message to give with the clothes is here invalid.

    Dressing up Darwi 2009

  • Another interesting thing I see in the paintings besides the clothes is the women's figures.

    18th and 19th Century Country Women 2009

  • As I said, all the knowledge I had about what message to give with the clothes is here invalid.

    Archive 2009-03-01 Darwi 2009

  • While others label clothes for heavier women "plus sizes," she dubs them "real sizes."

    Armanis Of Aisle 7 2008

  • When I am drying my clothes is my most comfortable moment!

    Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan b. 974? Murasaki Shikibu Izumi Shikibu 1920

  • The chief god with white hair and wonderful clothes -- It is what they call clothes; under it they are as you and me, only the color is different -- the chief god will give many bells to any folk who can show him the way to Quinsai.

    1492, 1922

  • The chief god with white hair and wonderful clothes -- It is what they call clothes; under it they are as you and me, only the color is different -- the chief god will give many bells to any folk who can show him the way to Quinsai.

    1492 Mary Johnston 1903

  • Upon those views, I began to consider about putting the few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order.

    Robinson Crusoe 1895

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