cloche

Borrowed from French cloche (“bell”), from Medieval Latin clocca (“bell”). Doublet of cloak and clock.

• IPA^(key): /klɒʃ/, /kloʊʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒʃ, -əʊʃ

cloche (plural cloches)

1. A glass covering, originally bell-shaped, for garden plants to prevent frost damage and promote early growth.
   • 2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 21:

     Old window screens were shade cloth; flattened cardboard and carpet offcuts were weed matting; plastic bottles, when sliced in half, became little cloches to fit over seedlings to keep them warm.

2. A bell-shaped, close-fitting women’s hat with a deep rounded crown and narrow rim.

   Synonym: cloche hat

   • 2011 October 3, Wayne Curtis, “From Tiki to Tacky—and Back”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     Faux 19th-century bartenders in sleeve garters and baroque facial hair ply their trade in pre-Prohibition bars. Women wearing cloche hats order sidecars at speakeasies.

3. A tableware cover, often resembling a bell.
   • 2025 June 27, Colette Davidson, Mark Sappenfield, “For Iranian diaspora in Europe, the war back home is a dilemma”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     Pistachio and date-filled cakes glisten under a glass cloche as customers drinking cardamom tea settle into brightly tapestried pouf chairs at the Pouya café and cultural center in Paris.

4. (aviation, historical) An apparatus used in controlling certain aeroplanes, consisting principally of a steering column mounted with a universal joint at the base, which is bell-shaped and has attached to it the cables for controlling the wing-warping devices, elevator planes, etc.

• (bell-shaped glass cover): bell jar

cloche (Old Fribourgeois)

1. alternative form of clloche (“bell”)

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “clocca”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 790

From Medieval Latin clocca, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos (see also Welsh cloch, Old Irish cloc), ultimately imitative. Related to Old English clucge, Low German Klock (“bell, clock”), German Glocke, Swedish klocka.

• IPA^(key): /klɔʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

cloche f (plural cloches)

1. bell (metal apparatus used to produce sound)
2. a glass covering, originally bell-shaped, for garden plants to prevent frost damage and promote early growth
3. a bell-shaped, close-fitting women’s hat with a deep rounded crown and narrow rim
4. cloche (tableware cover, often resembling a bell)
5. (colloquial) a clumsy person, an oaf

• cloche de plongée
• déménager à la cloche de bois
• sauvé par la cloche
• se taper la cloche
• son de cloche

cloche (plural cloches)

1. (colloquial) clumsy, stupid

   Synonyms: maladroit, lourdaud, empoté, manche

• à cloche-pied

cloche

1. inflection of clocher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “cloche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English clutch.

cloche f (invariable)

1. joystick
2. gear lever (in a car)

Borrowed from French cloche (“bell”).

cloche f (invariable)

1. cloche hat

cloche

1. alternative form of cloke (“claw”)

Medieval Latin clocca

cloche f (plural cloches)

1. bell (metal apparatus used to produce sound)

Medieval Latin clocca, probably from Celtic, compare Old Irish cloc, Welsh cloch, Manx clagg, all from Proto-Celtic *klokkos; ultimately imitative.

cloche oblique singular, f (oblique plural cloches, nominative singular cloche, nominative plural cloches)

1. bell (metal apparatus used to produce sound)

• cloch, clutch

Borrowed from English clutch.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklot͡ʃe/ [ˈklo.t͡ʃe]
• Rhymes: -otʃe
• Syllabification: clo‧che

cloche m (plural cloches)

1. clutch

   Synonym: embrague

• “cloche”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024