2. That which conceals; a disguise or pretext; an excuse; a fair pretense; a mask; a cover. [ 1913 Webster ]

No man is esteemed any ways considerable for policy who wears religion otherwise than as a cloak. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cloak bag, a bag in which a cloak or other clothes are carried; a portmanteau. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now glooming sadly, so to cloak her matter. Spenser.

Syn. -- See Palliate. [ 1913 Webster ]

To take heed of their dissemblings and cloakings. Strype. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The material of which of which cloaks are made. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A metallic bushing or strengthening piece in the center of a wooden block sheave. [ 1913 Webster ]

Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog,
And the hoarse nation croaked. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To complain; especially, to grumble; to forebode evil; to utter complaints or forebodings habitually. [ 1913 Webster ]

Marat . . . croaks with reasonableness. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

The raven himself is hoarse,
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Two ravens now began to croak
Their nuptial song. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) (a) A small American fish (Micropogon undulatus), of the Atlantic coast. (a) An American fresh-water fish (Aplodinotus grunniens); -- called also drum. (c) The surf fish of California. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ When caught these fishes make a croaking sound; whence the name, which is often corrupted into crocus.

1. (Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus. The oaks have alternate leaves, often variously lobed, and staminate flowers in catkins. The fruit is a smooth nut, called an acorn, which is more or less inclosed in a scaly involucre called the cup or cupule. There are now recognized about three hundred species, of which nearly fifty occur in the United States, the rest in Europe, Asia, and the other parts of North America, a very few barely reaching the northern parts of South America and Africa. Many of the oaks form forest trees of grand proportions and live many centuries. The wood is usually hard and tough, and provided with conspicuous medullary rays, forming the silver grain. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The strong wood or timber of the oak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Among the true oaks in America are:
Barren oak, or
Black-jack, Quercus nigra. --
Basket oak, Quercus Michauxii. --
Black oak, Quercus tinctoria; -- called also yellow oak or quercitron oak. --
Bur oak (see under Bur.), Quercus macrocarpa; -- called also over-cup or mossy-cup oak. --
Chestnut oak, Quercus Prinus and Quercus densiflora. --
Chinquapin oak (see under Chinquapin), Quercus prinoides. --
Coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, of California; -- also called enceno. --
Live oak (see under Live), Quercus virens, the best of all for shipbuilding; also, Quercus Chrysolepis, of California. --
Pin oak. Same as Swamp oak. --
Post oak, Quercus obtusifolia. --
Red oak, Quercus rubra. --
Scarlet oak, Quercus coccinea. --
Scrub oak, Quercus ilicifolia, Quercus undulata, etc. --
Shingle oak, Quercus imbricaria. --
Spanish oak, Quercus falcata. --
Swamp Spanish oak, or
Pin oak, Quercus palustris. --
Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor. --
Water oak, Quercus aquatica. --
Water white oak, Quercus lyrata. --
Willow oak, Quercus Phellos. [ 1913 Webster ] Among the true oaks in Europe are:
Bitter oak, or
Turkey oak, Quercus Cerris (see Cerris). --
Cork oak, Quercus Suber. --
English white oak, Quercus Robur. --
Evergreen oak,
Holly oak, or
Holm oak, Quercus Ilex. --
Kermes oak, Quercus coccifera. --
Nutgall oak, Quercus infectoria. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Among plants called oak, but not of the genus Quercus, are:
African oak, a valuable timber tree (Oldfieldia Africana). --
Australian oak or
She oak, any tree of the genus Casuarina (see Casuarina). --
Indian oak, the teak tree (see Teak). --
Jerusalem oak. See under Jerusalem. --
New Zealand oak, a sapindaceous tree (Alectryon excelsum). --
Poison oak, a shrub once not distinguished from poison ivy, but now restricted to Rhus toxicodendron or Rhus diversiloba. --
Silky oak or
Silk-bark oak, an Australian tree (Grevillea robusta). [ 1913 Webster ]

Green oak, oak wood colored green by the growth of the mycelium of certain fungi. --
Oak apple, a large, smooth, round gall produced on the leaves of the American red oak by a gallfly (Cynips confluens). It is green and pulpy when young. --
Oak beauty (Zool.), a British geometrid moth (Biston prodromaria) whose larva feeds on the oak. --
Oak gall, a gall found on the oak. See 2d Gall. --
Oak leather (Bot.), the mycelium of a fungus which forms leatherlike patches in the fissures of oak wood. --
Oak pruner. (Zool.) See Pruner, the insect. --
Oak spangle, a kind of gall produced on the oak by the insect Diplolepis lenticularis. --
Oak wart, a wartlike gall on the twigs of an oak. --
The Oaks, one of the three great annual English horse races (the Derby and St. Leger being the others). It was instituted in 1779 by the Earl of Derby, and so called from his estate. --
To sport one's oak, to be “not at home to visitors, ” signified by closing the outer (oaken) door of one's rooms. [ Cant, Eng. Univ. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Oaken timber, wherewith to build ships. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The coarse portion separated from flax or hemp in nackling. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

White oakum, that made from untarred rope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To enter (into something) by pores or interstices; as, water soaks into the earth or other porous matter. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To drink intemperately or gluttonously. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To drench; to wet thoroughly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their land shall be soaked with blood. Isa. xxiv. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To draw in by the pores, or through small passages; as, a sponge soaks up water; the skin soaks in moisture. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To make (its way) by entering pores or interstices; -- often with through. [ 1913 Webster ]

The rivulet beneath soaked its way obscurely through wreaths of snow. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Fig.: To absorb; to drain. [ Obs. ] Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A hard drinker. [ Slang ] South. [ 1913 Webster ]