▪ I. † croot1 Obs. rare.
[In first quot. perhaps the same word as Sc. croot, cruit (kr{smY}t) the smallest pig in a litter, a diminutive child or person, and north. dial. crut dwarf. Cf. also Welsh crwt boy, lad, chap, little fellow.]
(See quots.)
| 1614 T. Freeman Rubbe & Great Cast xliv. C iv, Caspia, the decrepit old rich Croot [rime boot]. 1808–25 Jamieson, Croot, a puny feeble child; the smallest pig in a litter, etc. 1825 Brockett Gloss. N.C. Wds., Crut, a dwarf, or anything curbed in its growth. 1883 Huddersfield Gloss., Crut..in some parts means a dwarf. |
▪ II. † croot2 Mining. Obs.
[? F. croûte crust.]
‘A substance found about the ore in the lead mines at Mendip, being a mealy, white, soft stone, matted with ore’ (Chambers Cycl. Suppl.).
| 1668 Phil. Trans. III. 770 There is Sparr and Caulk about the Ore; and another substance, which they call the Crootes which is a mealy white stone, marted with Ore and soft. Ibid. It terminates in a dead Earth Clayie, without Croot or Sparr. 1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. I. 67. |
▪ III. croot
var. of crout v.