1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. cloud

Find the word definition

What is "cloud"

Crossword clues for cloud

cloud
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
cloud
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cloud of smoke (=a large amount)
▪ He lit a cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke.
a rain cloud
▪ Thick black rain clouds massed in the sky.
blanket of fog/cloud
clouds...gathering
▪ Storm clouds were gathering so we hurried home.
confuse/cloud/muddy the issue (=make an issue more difficult to understand or deal with than it needs to be)
▪ You must not let your feelings cloud the issue.
mushroom cloud
rock/cloud formation
▪ the canyon’s impressive rock formations
storm cloud
▪ Storm clouds are gathering over the trade negotiations.
Storm clouds are gathering
▪ Storm clouds are gathering over the trade negotiations.
storm clouds
▪ We could see storm clouds in the distance.
the sky clouds over (=clouds appear)
▪ The sky was beginning to cloud over.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
black
▪ Huge, black clouds rushed on the horizon.
▪ I leave the gym, enveloped in a thick black cloud of despair.
▪ Afterwards, a huge black cloud of acrid smoke rose hundreds of feet above the town.
▪ A black flotilla of clouds rose towering over the mountains and advanced on the house.
▪ Darkness had come prematurely with the deluge, the gloom summoned early by such an abundance of black cloud.
▪ A turbulent black cloud like a rumpled sheet seemed to descend from heaven.
▪ Rain swilled and foamed in its open mouth as it looked at the churning black clouds and the eruptions of fractured lightning.
▪ The black cloud returned to the screen as if it had followed them.
dark
▪ And that wasn't the only dark cloud on the horizon.
▪ And those bushy eyebrows that resembled dark clouds on his horizon.-How come?
▪ A dark cloud floated across the moon.
▪ We were bumping along a dirt road when a storm gathered dark clouds above us.
▪ It was like a dark foreboding cloud that settled on every aspect of my personality.
▪ It grows to be a small dark cloud of purpose, opaque with life.
▪ The sign to fasten seat-belts lit up in front of him. Dark clouds enveloped the aircraft and it began to bump through them.
▪ A dark cloud rolls lazily towards her in the sky.
dense
▪ It flings its fine hairs in the face of the assailant, in a dense cloud.
▪ The Magellan radar-mapping mission was designed to penetrate the dense cloud layer and return detailed radar images of the surface geology.
▪ Standard polyurethane foam ignites rapidly, forming dense clouds of smoke and toxic vapour as it does so.
▪ The acacia grove, like a dense cloud, became a dark backdrop for her.
▪ The wind began to pick up strongly; dense grey clouds skidded across the sky.
▪ It appears that the Leonids contain a dense cloud of dust released during recent stressful passages of comet Tempel-Tuttle by the Sun.
▪ This shop is surely an outpost of hell, with its oppressive heat and dense clouds of smoke.
▪ Dark clouds rolled over denser, thicker clouds and merged with them.
great
▪ There's a great cloud of smoke.
▪ Wherever it was, the entrance to it was a great gate of clouds kept by the Seasons.
▪ More and more men were transformed by the mutating power of the great clouds of Chaos magic drifting from the poles.
▪ Where the bombs had landed would be great clouds of dust.
▪ There was a great black cloud hovering over her head.
▪ It subsided in a great cloud of dust.
▪ Their swords and spears flashed, and a great cloud of arrows came flying, so that the air was black with them.
▪ At last they came to the topmost ridge of the mountain, and there lay a great field of cloud ahead of them.
grey
▪ Grown men buckle under the fear that these relentless, dancing grey clouds bring.
▪ But the very humiliation of being summoned turned the grey clouds over her veracity into a full thunderstorm.
▪ Though the steady march of grey clouds, a tiny square of blue emerges.
▪ The grey clouds that had prevailed that morning began to break up, promising a fine afternoon.
▪ The day was bright and windy and low grey fluffy clouds raced across the thin sun.
▪ Wisps of high grey cloud scarcely moved behind the copper beech.
▪ The sky was low and constantly shifting as different layers of grey and black cloud were dragged around by gusty winds.
heavy
▪ Under dark, heavy clouds, I returned to the den on the river.
▪ Looking northwards towards the end of the dale, she frowned to see the accumulation of heavy clouds above the moors.
▪ During June and July, heavy cloud may at times build up and the weather can become very humid.
▪ But towards morning heavy clouds spread across.
▪ Dark heavy clouds were crawling across the sky, blotting out the stars.
▪ Shadows of light passed across the high windows, heavy, low clouds moving by outside.
▪ The heavy clouds that had gathered about the summit of Mont Blanc boiled from within.
▪ While they slept, heavy clouds swirled over the valley in massed ranks and the snow began to fall.
high
▪ Closer yet, and the clustered spires of each hive soar from the wastes of ash to pierce the highest clouds.
▪ There may be some high clouds drifting by during the afternoon.
▪ Maybe we shall have one of those text book days of gentle ripple, high cloud and blue sky.
▪ There was a high cloud cover.
▪ There was a high wind and clouds scudded across the blue sky and when the sun was obscured the wind seemed cold.
▪ On either side of each barrier it leaves similar pockets of high and low cloud cover, of arid and lush terrain.
▪ I floated high on clouds, not of golden daffodils but of fantasies.
▪ Contentment filled her and she watched the high white clouds.
huge
▪ Afterwards, a huge black cloud of acrid smoke rose hundreds of feet above the town.
▪ It begins churning ahead, blowing huge clouds of spray from its spout, and generating great foam in its wake.
▪ You see it on telly, it goes down in sections and crumples in a huge cloud of dust.
▪ The fire sent up a huge cloud of smoke visible from San Francisco, 40 miles to the south.
▪ For an hour huge cloud came and covered sun.
▪ By evening a huge cloud of smoke began to rise from the scene, but it came from a barbecue pit.
low
▪ Once it entered low mountain cloud, production of acids increased 14-fold and fallout increased over 200 percent.
▪ However, cloud conditions in Florida are expected to worsen after Friday, with low clouds and rain showers likely.
▪ To compound the problem, drizzle and low cloud was firmly entrenched in the area.
▪ Clearing conditions were forecast behind the cold front that dragged low clouds through Central Florida early Friday.
▪ The control tower staff saw the aircraft making a sharp left-hand climbing turn before it disappeared into thick low cloud.
▪ On either side of each barrier it leaves similar pockets of high and low cloud cover, of arid and lush terrain.
▪ On a bill just ahead, the last of a broken Franciscan monastery, its dome of low cloud smeared in grey.
▪ Then flames burst from an upper window of the abandoned tenement a mile away across the river, reddening the low clouds.
small
▪ One moment the sky is clear - then, on the horizon, one small insignificant cloud.
▪ It grows to be a small dark cloud of purpose, opaque with life.
▪ Next, look up at the blue sky - and notice a small, dark cloud drifting past.
▪ He put his head next to mine, as we looked up at the few small, dappled clouds.
▪ Some say the sweat steamed from its back in small grey clouds.
▪ There was a small pinkish-white cloud of waste-dust that rose up from it.
▪ He became aware of the wind getting up a little more, sending the small clouds scudding across the face of the moon.
▪ Asik heard a rumbling noise and he could just see a small cloud of dust appearing in the distance.
thick
▪ The control tower staff saw the aircraft making a sharp left-hand climbing turn before it disappeared into thick low cloud.
▪ The sun was down, but there was still light buried in the thick clouds patrolling the sky.
▪ On approaching the high ground before the Alps themselves we all encountered thick cloud, despite the season, and icing.
▪ By morning thick clouds drift over, but the sky between them is deep blue and occasionally the sun peeks through.
▪ A thick cloud of mosquitoes had arrived on time and soon settled on everything and everybody.
▪ Dark clouds rolled over denser, thicker clouds and merged with them.
▪ Unfortunately the fireworks must have seeded the thick clouds overhead because it absolutely poured with rain, and we got soaked.
▪ It was like walking into a thick cloud.
white
▪ As they approach London they let down through the shining white floor of cloud into a dull grey light.
▪ We were to imagine a beautiful, white cloud gently touching our faces.
▪ Then I became aware that the bank of white clouds beyond was in reality the great ice-cap of Vatnajökull.
▪ Alice stole one long drink before rolling over in the boundless bed, fantasizing it as an endless beach of white cloud.
▪ Great white clouds rolled above us, tumbling over the mountain summit as if eager to find quieter air.
▪ Her face was a pile of white cloud afire with red hair.
▪ Contentment filled her and she watched the high white clouds.
▪ I stood on that porch listening to the silence, watching the white clouds in the dark blue summer sky.
■ NOUN
cover
▪ The temperature rises with the cloud cover, and the snow underfoot becomes wet and soft, making progress difficult and tiring.
▪ Wind currents and cloud cover always played havoc with our helicopters.
▪ Crop yields would fall as a result of shorter growing periods, and reduced solar radiation due to heavier cloud cover.
▪ And he heard now, from another direction, up above the cloud cover, a 28.
▪ Long periods of cloud cover hindered data acquisition during the 1991-92 summer period.
▪ The day was hot and there was no cloud cover at all.
▪ The cloud cover as well as the atmospheric conditions are precisely defined.
▪ There was considerable cloud cover, but he could still detect the blue-green out-lines of the Gold Coast.
dust
▪ At the edge of the plain a new dust cloud hovered.
▪ Although park emergency systems were mobilized immediately, the dust cloud prevented an immediate search, then darkness made it impossible.
▪ The dust cloud was closer now: about half a verst away.
▪ The dust cloud begins to smear out along the orbit of the comet.
▪ This was followed last year by the announcement that diamonds have been found in dust clouds surrounding forming stars.
▪ From the watchtowers a dust cloud is spied on the horizon.
formation
▪ Some theorists even believe that solar wind particles hitting the atmosphere may trigger cloud formation.
▪ Mountains stretched as far as my eyes could see, until the next cloud formation.
▪ However, a minority of features may be the result of waves which influence cloud formation as they move through the atmosphere.
gas
▪ A heavy overcast like a poison gas cloud was stationary over the battered city.
mushroom
▪ Some amyl too, which blew Jed's head up like a mushroom cloud.
▪ Dust is raised by near-surface bursts and lifted to high altitudes by the mushroom cloud.
▪ Sandro Botticelli s chart of hell is like a mushroom cloud or a child s spinning top.
▪ They raise horrendous amounts of dust, which is carried by the rising mushroom clouds into the stratosphere.
▪ But atomic power to my generation always means that mushroom cloud.
rain
▪ Black rain clouds were scudding in over the Thames.
▪ Outside, the rain clouds were gone, and the white, bony moon was full.
▪ Air turbulence may also be associated with rain clouds.
▪ Crossing high and fast above the plains, headed else-where, you are doing what rain clouds tend to do.
▪ Black rain clouds were riding up from the south, killing the light and making the day seem almost over.
▪ Finally, I could feel the turbulence pass like a battering rain cloud moving on.
▪ The sky looked like one massive mottled rain cloud.
▪ Dark rain clouds hung low over the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
storm
▪ But a storm cloud hovered on the horizon.
▪ I saw the storm clouds approaching.
▪ Her teased black hair surrounded her like a storm cloud.
▪ And out in the world, new storm clouds were gathering.
▪ But suddenly the storm clouds are gathering.
▪ Up ahead, in North Dakota, storm clouds came all the way down to the ground like an overhead garage door.
▪ Animation is fair, but the scene where the dragon flies into a storm cloud and is electrocuted is positively brain-bending!
▪ Walls a saturated sky blue, broken by gray the color of storm clouds.
■ VERB
blow
▪ High above, the birds wheeled and dipped in the wind that blew the clouds across the huge sky.
▪ It begins churning ahead, blowing huge clouds of spray from its spout, and generating great foam in its wake.
▪ Shifting winds blew clouds of spray over the rocks, trees, and shrubs until they seemed to be sheathed in alabaster.
break
▪ The late morning sun was beginning to break through the clouds.
▪ When the sun broke through the cloud, she felt exalted.
▪ Now, one characteristic shines like a beacon in a storm, like the sun breaking through clouds.
▪ And there were those glorious sunrises in flight, breaking through the clouds.
▪ But by the time they finished, the snow stopped and the sun broke through the clouds.
cast
▪ Armagh's injury worries cast a cloud over their preparations and Fermanagh could mount a smash and grab raid this time.
▪ Nice touches include steam vents that cast lingering clouds over the courses and new audio cues to warn of danger.
▪ The housing directory will help bridge this gap - although the proposed legal aid cuts do cast a cloud over this.
form
▪ It glittered eerily for a second and exploded, forming a cloud of tinsel.
▪ Methane condenses to form a cloud layer above the ammonia clouds, leaving a gas that is almost entirely hydrogen and helium.
▪ Standard polyurethane foam ignites rapidly, forming dense clouds of smoke and toxic vapour as it does so.
▪ Several different atmospheric constituents can form clouds in the Jovian atmosphere.
▪ But this year, it has finally decided to flower profusely, forming brownish clouds which drift hazily over the bush.
gather
▪ We were bumping along a dirt road when a storm gathered dark clouds above us.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cast a shadow/cloud over sth
▪ And Dexter tried to calm his faint resentment against her for casting a shadow over his optimistic mood.
▪ Armagh's injury worries cast a cloud over their preparations and Fermanagh could mount a smash and grab raid this time.
▪ But even should he reappear tomorrow looking hale and hearty, his long absence will have cast a shadow over his position.
▪ But this has cast a shadow over the College.
▪ It can not be denied, however, that Ramsey's death cast a shadow over all our activities.
▪ Show jeopardy: Langbaurgh's budget economies have cast a shadow over the future of East Cleveland's annual show.
▪ They cast a shadow over his meeting yesterday in the state capital, Chandigarh.
▪ Without the money ... it could cast a shadow over the future of student theatre in Oxford.
have your head in the clouds
heavy sky/clouds
▪ But towards morning heavy clouds spread across.
▪ Dark heavy clouds were crawling across the sky, blotting out the stars.
▪ Looking northwards towards the end of the dale, she frowned to see the accumulation of heavy clouds above the moors.
▪ The heavy clouds that had gathered about the summit of Mont Blanc boiled from within.
▪ Under dark, heavy clouds, I returned to the den on the river.
▪ While they slept, heavy clouds swirled over the valley in massed ranks and the snow began to fall.
veil of mist/cloud/smoke etc
▪ The moon was hidden under a veil of clouds, and there was not a breath of wind.
▪ Whose light retires behind its veil of cloud.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a cloud of flies
▪ Dark clouds gathered overhead.
▪ Dense cloud prevented the rescue helicopter from taking off.
▪ The plane was unable to land due to strong winds and low cloud cover.
▪ There wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A band of cloud stretched low across the valley and it was raining slightly.
▪ Above shone the stars and the rings; below lay a dimly visible sea of clouds.
▪ All the buildings shook, and at the same time a forked tongue of flame burst upward through the cloud.
▪ As the road climbed upward, gray-white cloud veils drifted among the dales, chiffon scarves of some giant Isadora Duncan.
▪ If clouds ap-peared, the clock hid behind them.
▪ The sun was setting in a blaze of pink, casting rosy shadows on the undersides of large, wet-looking clouds.
▪ These clouds are unbroken, and never, for example, look like the billowy cumulus clouds of the Earth.
▪ Under dark, heavy clouds, I returned to the den on the river.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
over
▪ But his mind had clouded over again at the wrong moment and now it was too late.
▪ Her eyes clouded over for a second, but even then all was not lost.
▪ For a moment his eyes looked at her beseechingly, then they clouded over and were vacant.
▪ When I got back to the cabin the sky had started to cloud over.
▪ Daylight broke, a stiff breeze struck up and the sky clouded over.
▪ Toward late afternoon, a strong wind came up and the sky clouded over.
▪ When he tried to speak his eye fluttered shut and then sprang open again, that bright red persimmon clouding over.
■ NOUN
face
▪ His face clouded again at the thought.
▪ He frowned, and the handsome face clouded momentarily, petulant as a child's.
horizon
▪ The failure of the talks held in Geneva at the end of September has clouded the horizon and increased tensions.
▪ New equipment and processes would never be tested in manufacturing environments; new strategies and theories would seldom cloud managerial horizons.
judgement
▪ The fact that you have enjoyed a few jars together will not cloud a journalist's judgement.
▪ She had allowed her own feelings to cloud her judgement.
▪ Wasn't he allowing his personal interests and prejudices to cloud his judgement?
▪ It arises from too much enthusiasm clouding the judgement of those developing the new electronic products.
▪ However, he warns that competition, especially in a recession, can cloud a company judgement.
mind
▪ All sorts of doubts clouded my mind.
▪ When Carpathia walks around clouding men's minds and portending dark futures, it is impossible not to think of Darth Vader.
▪ Yet drink clouded his mind, and in his heart Cranston knew that Athelstan was right to disapprove.
vision
▪ He told me that there are good people about and not to let this incident cloud my vision.
▪ He had perhaps allowed hatred of the Hohenstaufer to cloud his vision.
▪ If the sheer quantity of information about 1992 is clouding your vision, look no further for the silver lining.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
have your head in the clouds
heavy sky/clouds
▪ But towards morning heavy clouds spread across.
▪ Dark heavy clouds were crawling across the sky, blotting out the stars.
▪ Looking northwards towards the end of the dale, she frowned to see the accumulation of heavy clouds above the moors.
▪ The heavy clouds that had gathered about the summit of Mont Blanc boiled from within.
▪ Under dark, heavy clouds, I returned to the den on the river.
▪ While they slept, heavy clouds swirled over the valley in massed ranks and the snow began to fall.
veil of mist/cloud/smoke etc
▪ The moon was hidden under a veil of clouds, and there was not a breath of wind.
▪ Whose light retires behind its veil of cloud.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Alcohol had clouded his judgment.
▪ His face clouded when he saw her.
▪ The decision to put a parent in a nursing home can be clouded by guilt.
▪ The display cases were clouded with dust.
▪ The team's victory was clouded by the tragic events in their hometown.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Bethany poised over the bed, a slight abstract frown clouding her face.
▪ But her happiness is clouded by having to leave daughter Amber behind.
▪ But images of the period are shrouded in myth and clouded by partisan rhetoric.
▪ However, the shadow of war was beginning to cloud the cricket world.
▪ The fact that you have enjoyed a few jars together will not cloud a journalist's judgement.
▪ When I got back to the cabin the sky had started to cloud over.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cloud

Cloud \Cloud\ (kloud), n. [Prob. fr. AS. cl[=u]d a rock or hillock, the application arising from the frequent resemblance of clouds to rocks or hillocks in the sky or air.]

  1. A collection of visible vapor, or watery particles, suspended in the upper atmosphere. I do set my bow in the cloud. --Gen. ix. 13. Note: A classification of clouds according to their chief forms was first proposed by the meteorologist Howard, and this is still substantially employed. The following varieties and subvarieties are recognized:

    1. Cirrus. This is the most elevated of all the forms of clouds; is thin, long-drawn, sometimes looking like carded wool or hair, sometimes like a brush or room, sometimes in curl-like or fleecelike patches. It is the cat's-tail of the sailor, and the mare's-tail of the landsman.

    2. Cumulus. This form appears in large masses of a hemispherical form, or nearly so, above, but flat below, one often piled above another, forming great clouds, common in the summer, and presenting the appearance of gigantic mountains crowned with snow. It often affords rain and thunder gusts.

    3. Stratus. This form appears in layers or bands extending horizontally.

    4. Nimbus. This form is characterized by its uniform gray tint and ragged edges; it covers the sky in seasons of continued rain, as in easterly storms, and is the proper rain cloud. The name is sometimes used to denote a raining cumulus, or cumulostratus.

    5. Cirro-cumulus. This form consists, like the cirrus, of thin, broken, fleecelice clouds, but the parts are more or less rounded and regulary grouped. It is popularly called mackerel sky.

    6. Cirro-stratus. In this form the patches of cirrus coalesce in long strata, between cirrus and stratus.

    7. Cumulo-stratus. A form between cumulus and stratus, often assuming at the horizon a black or bluish tint. -- Fog, cloud, motionless, or nearly so, lying near or in contact with the earth's surface. -- Storm scud, cloud lying quite low, without form, and driven rapidly with the wind.

  2. A mass or volume of smoke, or flying dust, resembling vapor. ``A thick cloud of incense.''
    --Ezek. viii. 11.

  3. A dark vein or spot on a lighter material, as in marble; hence, a blemish or defect; as, a cloud upon one's reputation; a cloud on a title.

  4. That which has a dark, lowering, or threatening aspect; that which temporarily overshadows, obscures, or depresses; as, a cloud of sorrow; a cloud of war; a cloud upon the intellect.

  5. A great crowd or multitude; a vast collection. ``So great a cloud of witnesses.''
    --Heb. xii. 1.

  6. A large, loosely-knitted scarf, worn by women about the head.

    Cloud on a (or the) title (Law), a defect of title, usually superficial and capable of removal by release, decision in equity, or legislation.

    To be under a cloud, to be under suspicion or in disgrace; to be in disfavor.

    In the clouds, in the realm of facy and imagination; beyond reason; visionary.

Cloud

Cloud \Cloud\ (kloud), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Clouded; p. pr. & vb. n. Clouding.]

  1. To overspread or hide with a cloud or clouds; as, the sky is clouded.

  2. To darken or obscure, as if by hiding or enveloping with a cloud; hence, to render gloomy or sullen.

    One day too late, I fear me, noble lord, Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth.
    --Shak.

    Be not disheartened, then, nor cloud those looks.
    --Milton.

    Nothing clouds men's minds and impairs their honesty like prejudice.
    --M. Arnold.

  3. To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish; to damage; -- esp. used of reputation or character.

    I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without My present vengeance taken.
    --Shak.

  4. To mark with, or darken in, veins or sports; to variegate with colors; as, to cloud yarn.

    And the nice conduct of a clouded cane.
    --Pope.

Cloud

Cloud \Cloud\, v. i. To grow cloudy; to become obscure with clouds; -- often used with up.

Worthies, away! The scene begins to cloud.
--Shak.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
cloud

early 15c., "overspread with clouds, cover, darken," from cloud (n.). From 1510s as "to render dim or obscure;" 1590s as "to overspread with gloom." Intransitive sense of "become cloudy" is from 1560s. Related: Clouded; clouding.

cloud

Old English clud "mass of rock, hill," related to clod. Metaphoric extension to "raincloud, mass of evaporated water in the sky" is attested by c.1200 based on similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses. The usual Old English word for "cloud" was weolcan. In Middle English, skie also originally meant "cloud."\n

\nThe four fundamental types of cloud classification (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus) were proposed by British amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772-1864) in 1802. Figuratively, as something that casts a shadow, from early 15c.; hence under a cloud (c.1500). In the clouds "removed from earthly things; obscure, fanciful, unreal" is from 1640s. Cloud-compeller translates (poetically) Greek nephelegereta, a Homeric epithet of Zeus.

Related phrases:
Wiktionary
cloud

n. 1 (context obsolete English) A rock; boulder; a hill. 2 A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. 3 Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To become foggy or gloomy, to become obscured from sight. 2 (context transitive English) To overspread or hide with a cloud or clouds. 3 (context transitive English) To make obscure. 4 (context transitive English) To make gloomy or sullen. 5 (context transitive English) To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish (reputation or character). 6 (context transitive English) To mark with, or darken in, veins or sports; to variegate with colours.

Related phrases:
WordNet
cloud

  1. n. any collection of particles (e.g., smoke or dust) or gases that is visible

  2. a visible mass of water or ice particles suspended at a considerable altitude

  3. out of touch with reality; "his head was in the clouds"

  4. a cause of worry or gloom or trouble; "the only cloud on the horizon was the possibility of dissent by the French"

  5. suspicion affecting your reputation; "after that mistake he was under a cloud"

  6. a group of many insects; "a swarm of insects obscured the light"; "a cloud of butterflies" [syn: swarm]

cloud

  1. v. make overcast or cloudy; "Fall weather often overcasts our beaches" [syn: overcast] [ant: clear up]

  2. make less visible or unclear; "The stars are obscured by the clouds" [syn: obscure, befog, becloud, obnubilate, haze over, fog, mist]

  3. billow up in the form of a cloud; "The smoke clouded above the houses"

  4. make gloomy or depressed; "Their faces were clouded with sadness"

  5. place under suspicion or cast doubt upon; "sully someone's reputation" [syn: defile, sully, corrupt, taint]

  6. colour with streaks or blotches of different shades [syn: mottle, dapple]

  7. make milky or dull; "The chemical clouded the liquid to which it was added"

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Cloud -- U.S. County in Kansas
Population (2000): 10268
Housing Units (2000): 4838
Land area (2000): 715.633991 sq. miles (1853.483448 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 2.837646 sq. miles (7.349470 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 718.471637 sq. miles (1860.832918 sq. km)
Located within: Kansas (KS), FIPS 20
Location: 39.505567 N, 97.651814 W
Headwords:
Cloud
Cloud, KS
Cloud County
Cloud County, KS
Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Cloud (disambiguation)

A cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere.

Cloud(s) may also refer to:

Cloud

Cloud types in the troposphere, the atmospheric layer closest to Earth's surface, have Latin names due to the universal adaptation of Luke Howard's nomenclature. It was formally proposed in December 1802 and published for the first time the following year. It became the basis of a modern international system that classifies these tropospheric aerosols into five physical forms. These physical types include stratiform sheets, stratocumuliform rolls, ripples, and patches, cirriform wisps and patches, cumuliform heaps of variable size, and very large cumulonimbiform heaps that often show complex structure. Most of these forms can be found in the high, middle, and low altitude levels or étages of the troposphere.

The forms are cross-classified by étage to produce ten basic genus-types or genera. Cirriform clouds only occur in the high altitude range and therefore constitute a single genus. Stratocumuliform and stratiform genera have the prefix cirro- when they occur in the high étage, and alto- when based in the middle altitude range. Low- and multi-étage genera of any form do not have altitude-related prefixes. With this method of nomenclature, a cloud genus can be defined as any physical form that is particular to a given étage, or simultaneously to more than one étage if the genus-type has significant vertical extent. Most genera can be divided into species that are often subdivided into varieties where applicable.

Clouds that form higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere have common names for their main types, but are sub-classified alpha-numerically rather than with the elaborate system of Latin names given to cloud types in the troposphere. They are relatively uncommon and are mostly seen in the polar regions of Earth. Clouds have been observed in the atmospheres of other planets and moons in the Solar System and beyond, but, due to their different temperature characteristics, they are often composed of other substances such as methane, ammonia, and sulfuric acid as well as water.

Overview: Terrestrial classification of major types

Cirriform

Stratocumuliform

Stratiform

Cumuliform

Cumulonimbiform

Polar mesospheric (extreme level - edge of space)

Noctilucent

Polar stratospheric (very high level)

Nacreous and non-nacreous

High-level tropospheric

Cirrus

Cirrocumulus

Cirrostratus

Mid-level tropospheric

Altocumulus

Altostratus

Low-level tropospheric

Stratocumulus

Stratus

Cumulus (small)

Multi-level tropospheric (low to middle cloud base)

Nimbostratus

Cumulus (moderate or large)

Cumulonimbus

Cloud (operating system)

Cloud is a browser-based operating system created by Good OS LLC, a Los Angeles-based corporation. The company initially launched a Linux distribution called gOS which is heavily based on Ubuntu, now in its third incarnation.

Cloud (surname)

Cloud or Cloude is a surname found in early England and in some native American families.

Cloud (dancer)

Daniel "Cloud" Campos (born May 6, 1983) is an award-winning Los Angeles-based dancer, director, and occasional actor raised in San Diego, California and Orlando, Florida.

Cloud (music)

In music a cloud is a sound mass consisting of statistical clouds of microsounds and characterized first by the set of elements used in the texture, secondly density, including rhythmic and pitch density. Clouds may include ambiguity of rhythmic foreground and background or rhythmic hierarchy.

Examples include:

  • Iannis Xenakis's Concret PH (1958), Bohor I (1962), Persepolis (1971), and many of his pieces for traditional instruments
  • György Ligeti's Clocks and Clouds (1972–3)
  • La Monte Young's The Well Tuned Piano
  • Bernard Parmegiani's De natura sonorum (1975)

Clouds are created and used often in granular synthesis. Musical clouds exist on the "meso" or formal time scale. Clouds allow for the interpentration of sound masses first described by Edgard Varèse including smooth mutation (through crossfade), disintegration, and coalescence.

Curtis Roads suggests a taxonomy of cloud morphology based on atmospheric clouds: cumulus, stratocumulus, stratus, nimbostratus, and cirrus; as well as nebulae: dark or glowing, amorphus or ring-shaped, and constantly evolving.

Cloud (video game)

Cloud is a 2005 indie puzzle video game developed by a team of students in the University of Southern California's (USC) Interactive Media Program. The team began development of Cloud in January 2005 with a US$20,000 grant from the USC; the game was released as a free download that October. By July 2006, the hosting website had received 6 million visits, and the game had been downloaded 600,000 times.

The game centers on a boy who dreams of flying while asleep in a hospital bed. The concept was partially based on lead designer Jenova Chen's childhood; he was often hospitalized for asthma and would daydream while alone in his room. Assuming the role of the boy, the player flies through a dream world and manipulates clouds to solve puzzles. The game was intended to spark emotions in the player that the video game industry usually ignored.

Cloud won the Best Student Philosophy award at the 2006 Slamdance Guerilla Games Competition, and a Student Showcase award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival. The game was well received by critics, who cited its visuals, music, and relaxing atmosphere as high points. Chen and producer Kellee Santiago went on to co-found the studio Thatgamecompany, which has considered remaking Cloud as a commercial video game.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "cloud".

Riane gave a little moan of longing, and for a delicious moment the kiss consumed them both in a perfumed cloud of citrus and musk.

Then again, maybe the clip embodies an absurdist view of life that he kept hidden from his peers, most of whom perceived him to have the famished appetites and clouded sensibility of a creature in a shooter game.

IN THE HISTORY of the Adams family there was probably no more joyous homecoming than took place in the heat of midmorning on August 18, 1817, when John Quincy, Louisa Catherine, and their three sons came over the hill from Milton in a coach-and-four trailing a cloud of dust.

If it had been able to complete its skim around the sun, it would have soared back out to the cometary cloud, quickly cooling, the lovely coma and tail dispersing into the dark, to resume its aeonic dreaming.

Leaning on the crumbling stone wall of a temple orchard, looking past the sloping tile roofs of Grange Head, Maia lifted her gaze to watch low clouds briefly occult a brightly speckled, placid sea, its green shoals aflicker with silver schools of fish and the flapping shadows of hovering swoop-birds.

Hand light on the joystick, she veered toward the green smolder of Seattle, riding down a cloud canyon aflicker with electric bursts.

Coyote killed the afterburner, then snapped the Tomcat into a wingover which sent the heavy aircraft plunging toward the cloud deck in an inverted dive.

With a rumble of displaced air, the Libra-class freighter broke through the high wisps of cloud, airfoil body providing lift to assist the engines as the freighter decelerated and turned to the strip heading from orbit.

What little wind there was came from the east and the sky had few altocumulus clouds.

During the night, thick banks of altocumulus clouds had moved in on a long front from the Gulf of Finland to the Ukraine.

Huge clouds roiled around the shoulders and heads of the massive peaks, and a thick layer of altocumulus poured through valleys rife with blue-green glaciers.

Most precipitation, he vaguely remembered learning once, fell from nimbostratus, altostratus or cumulonimbus clouds.

The cloud was broken cumulus, a legacy of the frontal system with endless altostratus riding on the cold air.

And when he came there, he saw a great cloud that shot out of the sky, descending on the hill, and when it came down on the hill and melted away, there it left the Beggarman of the King of Sweden standing, and between his legs the Amadan saw the whole world and nothing over his head.

It was as if the sky were covered with a thick cloud bank which absorbed the monstrous radiation of a sun now four times its previous diameter and madly changing shape like a monstrous ameba of flame.