† ˈcroupon Obs. or dial.
Forms: 5 cropoun, -on, -owne, -yn, crupoun, cruppon, crovpon, crowpon, -yn, 8 croppin, curpon, -en, -in.
[a. OF. croupon, augm. or dim. of croupe, in OF. crupe, crope rump, rear-part: see croup 1. The mod.Sc. form is curpon by metathesis of r.]
The croup or rump of a horse or other animal; the buttocks or posteriors of the human body; transf. the hinder part of a thing; the crupper of the harness.
| [a 1300 Gloss. Neckham in Wright Voc. 99 Clunes, crupuns.] c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 2468 Fro his [the giant's] hals to his cropoun. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxi. 142 A faire beste..his crupoun and his taile er lyke to a hert. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 105/1 Cropon of a beste, clunis. 1483 Cath. Angl. 85 A Crovpon [v.r. Cruppon], clunis. 1722 W. Hamilton Wallace 9 (Jam.) I'd gar their curpons crack. 1725 New Cant. Dict., Croppin, the Tail of any Thing; as, The Croppin of the Rotan [= Cart]. 1785 Burns Halloween xviii, The graip he for a harrow taks, And haurls at his curpin. |