cast a clout

[pigbin]

where does dont cast a clout till may is out my mother always used to say every year

[Bathsheba]

I've always understood it to mean don't take winter clothing off till the end of May.

[mrs_overall]

It's an English proverb dating from the 1700's.
"Clout" is an archaic word, variously spelled as clowt, clowte, cloote, clute...all of which are words for "clothing."

It means don't leave off your winter clothing until the end of May is over.
Looking at the weather today, it seems like good advice!

[pigbin]

thanks for your answers i thought it was just a potteries saying

[Facetious]

It's often said in response to gardening too. I used to ask when to pop my bedding plants out and was told 'ne'er cast a clout 'til May is out' because there is still a possibility of frost until June.

[ladyalex]

We have it here in Scotland too. I thought it referred to the month of May, but have heard that some folk say it refers to May blossom ie Do not take your winter clothes off until the May (hawthorn) is in bloom.

We say it
Ne'er cast a cloot till May be oot.

[Yellow Peril]

The 'May' referred to is May Blossom not the month of May. So when May blooms you can shed your winter woolies.

[crisgal]

Yep, i'm in lancashire, and we too take it to mean the mae blossom, not the month.

[heathfield]

I know of the saying in reference to the mayflower too, rather than the month of May. (The mayflower is the flower of the hawthorn, by the way).

[VS Prasad]

With most phrases and sayings the meaning is well understood but the origin is uncertain. With this one the main interest is the doubt about the meaning. So, this time, we'll have the origin first.

Origin

'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out' is an English proverb. The earliest citation is this version of the rhyme from Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732, although it probably existed in word-of-mouth form well before that:

"Leave not off a Clout Till May be out.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/till-may-is -out.html

The earliest known version of this proverb, dated 1732, is "Leave not off a Clout, till May be out". "Clout" here clearly has to refer to clothes, not clods - how would you "leave off" a clod? It's significant that the first version of the proverb in English occurs several decades after the first publication of the translation of the Spanish version in Stevens' "Spanish & English Dictionary" in 1706.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/54/me ssages/478.html