HOOD, a covering for the head. Some form of hood as a loose covering easily drawn on or off the head has formed a natural part of outdoor costume both for men and women at all times and in all quarters of the globe where climatic conditions called for it. In the middle ages and later both men and women wore it, but with men it tended to be superseded by the hat before it became merely an occasional and additional head-cover ing in time of bad weather. For illustrations and examples of the hood as worn by men and women in mediaeval and later times see DRESS; for the hood or cowl as part of the dress of a religious see COWL, and as forming a distinctive mark of degree in aca demic costume see ROBES. The word is applied to many objects resembling a hood in function or shape, such as a folding cover for a carriage to protect the occupants from rain or wind, the belled covering for the head of a hawk trained for falconry, the endmost planks in a ship's bottom at bow or stern, and, in botany and zoology, certain parts of a flower or of the neck of an animal, which in arrangement of structure or of colour, recall this article of dress.