▪ I. cloche
(klɒʃ)
[Fr. cloche bell, bell-glass, etc.]
1. Orig., a special kind of bell-glass used by gardeners for rearing young or delicate plants under. Now, a translucent plant-cover of any shape or size (see quot. 1954).
| 1882 The Garden 27 May 371/3 We have some thousands of cuttings..coming on under cloches just now. 1889 Corresp. at Kew says—‘Cloche is in common use in the market gardens about here for the glasses under which spring vegetables are raised.’ 1954 A. G. L. Hellyer Encycl. Garden Work 54/2 Nowadays..almost all cloches are..open-ended glass shelters which can be placed end to end to form a continuous line over a row, or rows, of plants. |
2. In full cloche hat. A woman's close-fitting hat of a bell shape.
| 1907 Daily Chron. 25 June 8/3 The very latest ‘cloche’ shape. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 24 Aug. 13/1 The mondaine's big cloche hat. 1908 Ibid. 29 Feb. 13/2 So popular is the cloche or mushroom hat with the Parisienne. 1923 Daily Mail 3 Aug. 11 The narrow-brimmed, high-crowned cloche. 1952 News Chron. 4 Jan. (Advt.), Ladies' cloche velour hats. |
† 3. Aeronaut. (See quots.) Obs.
| 1912 C. B. Hayward Pract. Aeronautics vii. 642 The word ‘cloche’ applied to the bell-like attachment for the control wires, has been adopted into the international vocabulary of aeroplaning. 1918 H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks (ed. 6) 137 Cloche, literally ‘bell’. Is applied to the bell-shaped construction which forms the lower part of the pilot's control lever in a Bleriot monoplane, and to which the control cables are attached. |
▪ II. cloche
obs. form of clutch.