Cloaker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or device that obscures or hides themselves or something else from view or detection ; a person who wears a cloak as a garment ; a character or entity that moves stealthily while concealed in various contexts
2. One who conceals presence by means of a cloak or other methods of invisibility or disguise ; an individual who drapes a cloak for protection or appearance ; a stealthy figure commonly found in fiction or gaming that avoids detection
3. An agent or mechanism that covers or masks visibility to evade notice ; a wearer of an outer garment known as a cloak ; a covert operative often described in stories or digital environments for hiding existence from others

Etymology: A "cloaker" is simply someone who cloaks, or conceals, something, built from the verb "cloak" plus the agent suffix "-er," which turns an action into the person who performs it. The verb itself grew out of the garment. The noun "cloak" came into English from Anglo-Norman and Old French, where a "cloque" was a bell, and the garment was likely named for its bell-like shape, falling in a wide curve from the shoulders. Covering something with a cloak, and then hiding it, followed naturally. So the figurative sense of concealing or disguising is older than many people would guess, and it rests on a literal image of draping fabric over something to hide it. The agent noun is a transparent formation that adds nothing new beyond that base.

Synonyms: camoufleur, hider, concealer, masker, disguiser

Antonyms: revealer, exposer, uncoverer, discloser