cloud

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. haze (see cloudiness, obscurity); flight (see assemblage).

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Fog at a distance from the earth]

Syn. haze, mist, rack, fogginess, haziness, film, puff, billow, frost, nebula, nebulosity, vapor, veil, cloud cover, cloudiness, overcast, pall.

Types of clouds include: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altostratus, altocumulus, cumulonimbus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus; woolpack*, scud*, meteor*, curl-cloud*, mare's tail*, colt's tail*, cat's tail*, mackerel sky*, thunderhead*, sheep*.

2. [Any nebulous mass]

Syn. smoke, dust, vapor, dimness; see sense 1, darkness 1 , fog 1 .

3. [Anything ominous]

Syn. pall, spot, fault, blemish, dark spot, stain, shadow, flaw, blotch, obscurity, gloom; see also warning .

• in the clouds,

Syn. fanciful, fantastic, lost in reverie; see absent-minded , impractical , visionary 1 .

• under a cloud,

Syn.

4. suspect, dubious, under suspicion, in disgrace; see disgraced , suspicious 2 .

5. depressed, worried, sad; see troubled 1 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

vapor, mist, fog, haze, steam, puff, veil, billow, overcast, gloom, nebula. The only birds that never sleep.''—Victor Hugo.

WORD FIND

• aircraft trail: contrail

• boiling, billowing or breastlike, severe thunderstorm: mammatocumulus

• bulging: billowing

• cauliflowerlike, fair-weather cloud: cumulus, stratocumulus

• circle around sun or moon: halo

• continuous, layered, low: stratus

• descriptive: buttermilk sky

• feathery tuft: cirrus, mare’s tail

• fleecy cumulus cloud: woolpack, sheep, altocumulus

• gray, thick and shapeless rain cloud: nimbostratus

• horsetail-like cirrus cloud: mare’s tail

• mass broken off by wind: rack

• rain-producing: nimbus

• referring to: nubilous

• ripples or bands: cirrocumulus, mackeral sky

• study of: nephology

• swift-moving, dark storm patch: scud

• thunder and lightning: thunderhead

• thunderhead’s anvil-shaped top: incus

• veils, thin and white, covering most of sky: cirrostratus

• wisp trailing from rain cloud: virga

see fog, rain

II

v.

befog, darken, obscure, veil, dim, cloak, blind, muddle.

ANT.: clear, illuminate

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun A very large number of things grouped together: army, crowd, drove, flock, horde, host, legion, mass, mob, multitude, ruck1, score (used in plural), swarm, throng. See BIG, GROUP. II verb 1. To make dim or indistinct: becloud, bedim, befog, blear, blur, dim, dull, eclipse, fog, gloom, mist, obfuscate, obscure, overcast, overshadow, shadow. See CLEAR. 2. To contaminate the reputation of: befoul, besmear, besmirch, bespatter, blacken, denigrate, dirty, smear, smudge, smut, soil, spatter, stain, sully, taint, tarnish. Idioms: give a black eye to, sling (or throw) mud on. See ATTACK, CLEAN.