A cloak is a loose, sleeveless outer garment that drapes over your shoulders and fastens at the neck, hanging down like a cape to keep you warm or dry. Think of it as a blanket you can wear while walking around. Throughout history, people wore cloaks as their main protection against cold and rain, before modern coats with sleeves became common.

Cloaks appear constantly in old stories and fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood wore a red cloak through the forest. Medieval knights might throw a cloak over their armor. Wizards in fantasy stories often wear flowing cloaks that swirl dramatically when they turn around. While people rarely wear actual cloaks today (except at costume parties or Renaissance fairs), the word lives on in other ways.

When you cloak something, you hide or conceal it, just like a cloak conceals the person wearing it. A spy might operate under the cloak of darkness, using nighttime shadows as cover. Scientists might cloak their research in secrecy to protect their discoveries. A superhero might use a secret identity as a cloak to protect loved ones from villains.

The phrase cloak and dagger describes mysterious, secretive activities, especially spying.