What does clouted mean?
"Clouted" serves two distinct roles in English. Its dominant modern use is as the past tense and past participle of the verb "clout," meaning to strike or hit hard — a usage especially common in informal British speech and sports reporting, where a batsman might be said to have "clouted the ball into the stands." The word carries a blunt, forceful connotation, suggesting an ungainly but powerful blow rather than a skilled strike. A second, now archaic sense derives from the noun "clout," which once meant a piece of cloth: to be "clouted" was to be patched or mended with such fabric, giving rise to literary phrases like "a clouted swain" for a rustic peasant in rough clothing. The word traces back through Middle English "cloute" (cloth, patch, blow), from Old English "clut" meaning a rag or scrap. Today it is best known for its punchy sense of a heavy hit.
Past tense and past participle of "clout": struck or hit hard.
"He clouted his little brother playfully on the arm."
Informal register; common in British English and sports commentary.
(Archaic) Patched with cloth; dressed in coarse, mended clothing.
""A clouted swain" appears in Spenser's poetry to describe a humble countryman."
Survives only in literary or historical usage.
In Shakespeare's day, a "clouted swain" was a rustic peasant — because his clothes were visibly patched with rough scraps of cloth.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clouted
"Clouted" descends from the verb "clout," which itself comes from the noun "clout," from Old English "clut," meaning a rag, scrap of cloth, or patch. From this textile root developed both the sense of mending clothes with patches (hence the archaic adjective "clouted," as in Shakespeare's "clouted swains") and the sense of delivering a blow — likely reinforced by the related verb "cleat"/"clite" or simply by semantic extension, though the precise path is debated. The word has remained continuously in English since the medieval period, with the hitting sense now dominant.
Related word forms
How clouted is actually used
The striking sense is informal-to-neutral British English, common in sports commentary and casual speech about physical blows. The patching sense survives only in historical or literary contexts.
Easily confused with clouted
"Clouded" means obscured, dimmed, or made unclear (as in judgment or vision), while "clouted" means struck with a blow or, historically, patched with cloth.