CLOUT . Jeremiah 38:11-12 ‘old cast clouts.’ The word is still used in Scotland for cloths (as in ‘dish-clout’), but for clothes only contemptuously. Formerly there was no contempt in the word. Sir John Mandeville ( Travels , Macmillan’s ed. p. 75) says, ‘And in that well she washed often-time the clouts of her son Jesu Christ.’ The verb ‘to clout’ occurs in Joshua 9:5 , of shoes (Amer. RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘patched’).