The action of striking or hitting; patching with cloth or material; the process of assembling something crudely.
From 'clout' (to strike or patch) plus '-ing' gerund suffix. The '-ing' form can refer to either the action of striking or the action of patching with cloth.
Medieval 'clouting' referred to both violent hitting and the practical craft of patching clothes with scraps, showing how the same word could describe both destruction and repair—it's a linguistic reminder that violence and maintenance are sometimes two faces of the same action of striking or forcing things together.
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