▪ I. crass, a.
(kræs)
[ad. L. crass-us solid, thick, dense, fat, etc. Cf. F. crasse fem. adj. (16th c. in Littré); OF. had cras, now gras.]
1. Coarse, gross, dense, thick (in physical constitution or texture). Now somewhat rare.
| 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 12 The bottome of the mother or wombe is more crasse, thycke, and flesshy. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. 91 A crasse and fumide exhalation. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth (1723) 295 Particles, which are more crass and ponderous. 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. i. ix. 23 Of all Unguents..the most crasse and thickest. 1866 Treas. Bot. s.v., The leaves of cotyledons, which are much more fleshy, have been called crass. 1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 180 A crass, gluey substance. |
† b. Said of things material as opposed to immaterial or spiritual. Obs.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Ad Sec. 12. 94 Dives had the inheritance of the earth, in the crasse materiall sense. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. iii. vi. §7 Whatsoever is crass and external leaves stronger Impress upon the Phansie. 1664 ― Synops. Proph. 217 Bearing strongly upon the phancy by exhibiting crass and palpable objects. |
2. Of personal qualities, ideas, and other things immaterial: Gross; grossly dull or stupid, ‘dense’.
| 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. 20 Where the phantasie..is crass and dull and moves slowly. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 110 An undoubted and conspicuous piece of the crassest Anti-christianism. 1859 Times 20 Aug. 8/3 A free Press..to..dispel the crass ignorance which weighs over the land. 1877 E. R. Conder Bas. Faith iii. 108 The crass materialism which talks about the brain secreting thought as the liver secretes bile. 1881 W. R. Smith Old Test. in Jew. Ch. 291 The crasser forms of religion. |
b. Of persons: Grossly stupid, ‘dense’; grossly insensitive or unrefined (rare).
| 1861 Thackeray Philip viii, Your..undeserved good fortune..has rendered you hard, cold, crass, indifferent. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xvi, Crass minds..whose reflective scales could only weigh things in the lump. 1877 Black Green Past. xx. (1878) 161 This crass idiot. |
▪ II. crass, n.
(kræs)
[An abbreviation of the specific name crassicornis.]
A collector's name for a species of Sea Anemone, Bunodes crassicornis.
| 1857 Wood Comm. Obj. Seashore vi, Bunodes crassicornis..is much too long a title for everyday use, and so it is contracted into ‘Crass’. 1885 J. Runciman Skippers & Sh. 101 The glossy anemone is useless, but the firm solid crass makes the best possible lure for cod. |