overcloud, v.
(-ˈklaʊd)
[over- 8.]
1. trans. To cloud over; to overspread or cover with a cloud or clouds, or with something that dims or conceals like a cloud.
| 1592 Kyd Sp. Trag. ii. iv, To ouer-cloud the brightnes of the Sunne. 1697 Dryden æneid xi. 1193 A gathering mist o'erclouds her cheerful eyes. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. II. 403 The dull, heavy, terreous parts, which overclouded the expansum. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. ii. 27 This dust was so abundant that..it overclouded the sun. |
2. fig. To cast a shadow over, render gloomy; to make obscure or indistinct to perception, or deprive of clearness of perception; to obscure.
| 1593 Nashe Christs T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 115 Yea, the Chiefetaines of them, were ouer-clowded in conceite. 1660 tr. Amyraldus' Treat. conc. Relig. iii. viii. 482 The Speculations of our Scholasticks..will overcloud our Religion. 1781 Cowper Conversation 339 Yet still, o'erclouded with a constant frown, He does not swallow, but he gulps it down. 1842 Manning Serm. ii. (1848) I. 23 The passing thoughts of evil which overcloud his soul. |
3. intr. To become overclouded; to cloud over.
| 1862 Macm. Mag. July 217 He had not been long in office till this fair scene began to overcloud. |
Hence overˈclouded ppl. a., overˈclouding vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1624) 320 In earthly, ignorant, and overclouded man. a 1845 Hood Captain's Cow xix, At last with overclouding skies A breeze again began to rise. 1880 G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 82 It came to an overclouding and then a panic. |