Cloak (; 110), n.
Etymology: [Of. cloque cloak (from the bell-like shape), bell, F. cloche bell; perh. of Celtik origin and the same word as E. clock. See 1st Clock.]
1. A loose outer garment, extending from the neck downwards, and commonly without sleeves. It is longer than a cape, and is worn both by men and by women.
2. That which conceals; a disguise or pretext; an excuse; a fair pretense; a mask; a cover. No man is esteemed any ways considerable for policy who wears religion otherwise than as a cloak. South. Cloak bag, a bag in which a cloak or other clothes are carried; a portmanteau. Shak.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Cloak, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cloaked; p. pr. & vb. n. Cloaking.]
To cover with, or as with, a cloak; hence, to hide or conceal. Now glooming sadly, so to cloak her matter. Spenser.
Syn. -- See Palliate.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for cloak; he lists it under hide, palliate, pretense.
Where he writes about it:
Cloak, from the French, and palliate, from the Latin, are the same in original signification, but have diverged in meaning; a cloak may be used to hide completely the person or some object carried about the person, or it may but partly veil the figure, making the outlines less distinct; cloak is used in the former, palliate, in the latter sense; to cloak a sin is to attempt to hide it from discovery; to palliate it is to attempt to hide some part of its blameworthiness. — from palliate