clout

Meanings

1. Influence or effectiveness, especially political.
2. A blow with the hand.
3. A home run.
4. The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head.
5. A swaddling cloth.
6. A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag.
7. An iron plate on an axletree or other wood to keep it from wearing; a washer.
8. A clout nail.
9. A piece; a fragment.

1. To hit (someone or something), especially with the fist.
2. To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage, patch, or mend with a clout.
3. To stud with nails, as a timber, or a boot sole.
4. To guard with an iron plate, as an axletree.
5. To join or patch clumsily.

1. Dated form of clot.

Etymology

From Middle English clout (“piece of cloth”), from Old English clūt (“piece of cloth, patch; metal plate”), from Proto-West Germanic *klūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gelewdos, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). The influence sense originated in the dialect of Chicago, but has become widespread. Cognate with Old Norse klútr (“kerchief”), Swedish klut, Danish klud, Middle High German klōz (“lump”), whence German Kloß (“clump”), and dialectal Russian глуда (gluda). See also cleat.