Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to hit, to give heavy blows to; thus clouting, a beating.

c.1521		J. Heywood Witty and Witless in Farmer (1905) 194: Some cuff, some clout him.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Coxcomb II ii: I’ll clout thy old bald brain-pan.
c.1620		Fletcher Women Pleased II vi: Pay him o’th pate, clout him for all his curtesies.
1628		R. Speed Counter Scuffle A2: Full nimbly could he cuffe and clout.
1841		Sheffield Indep. 6 Nov. n.p.: Brammall threatened to clout Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe [...] saying, if Brammall did not hold his noise, he would give him a clouting.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 224/2: But I was starved back in a week, and got a h-- of a clouting.
1869		R.D. Blackmore Lorna Doone (1923) 32: A big boy clouted them on the head.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 94: ‘The heaviest cloutin’ match’ – to use his own phrase – he ever had, was with young Allcock for refusing to marry his sister.
1895		E. Pugh Street in Suburbia 55: When he lost his temper and clouted us we were never quite sure which side of our head we would fall on till we fell on it.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 247: Clouting. Assaulting.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 97: When mommer gits him upstairs she’ll clout him, won’t you mommer?
1918		Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/1: Crook Chatter [...] ‘[T]he leather lifting game is not what it used to be. It’s easier to “case a joint” now, “clout a boat,” stick up the place and make a getaway’.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 7: You must have been mad when you clouted the kid.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 338: Most likely she had not had dinner ready for them because she had been wild with her father at his clouting her.
1938		D. Runyon ‘A Job for the Macarone’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 692: He is thinking of clouting us around some.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 35: I’ll clout you again, you goon.
1955		Galton & Simpson Hancock’s Half Hour May [radio script] Mum, there’s that bloke who’s goin’ to clout me.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘The Match’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 116: He had been up before the gaffer [...] for clouting the mash-lad who had called him Cock-eye in front of the office girl.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene vi: It’s tryin’ a clout ’im.
1977		A. Ayckbourn Ten Times Table II i: donald: Who exactly are the enemy, Captain? How will one know them? tim: Anyone wearing a jerkin, clout him.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1991		F. Mac Anna Last of the High Kings 56: Then he clouted him across the face with an open palm.

2. (UK Black/gang) to assault, to stab.

2017

Harlem Spartans ‘Kennington Where It Started’ 🎵 Dip, dip, Prince have him dancing / [...] /SA or Sav get out there and clart him.