ˈkercher Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: α. 4 kevercher, 4– kercher, (5 -ere, -yer, 6 -oer, karcher, kircher); β. 6 courcher.
[ME. curcher, kercher, by syncope from earlier *cover-, kevercher a. OF. couvre-, cuevrechier (Godef. Compl.), erroneous forms of couvrechief, etc.]
= kerchief.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 65 Ȝif þei ȝeuen benefis to clerkis..for palfreis or keuercheris..it is foul symonye. c 1450 Cov. Myst. v. (Shaks. Soc.) 54 With this Kerchere I kure thi face. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 433 b/1 Shertes, shetys and kerchyers. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xxix. 84 Oure faces wrapped in kerchers, so that we coude nat be knowen. 1571 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 353 A worcett kirtle, a courcher, a raile. 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 12, I having..usid mi self to a hat and a karcher, culd not abide ani while to be barehed. 1649 Bulwer Pathomyot. ii. i. 88 This Muscle..Laurentius compares to a Maids Coife or Kercher. 1718 F. Hutchinson Witchcraft 132 She..pulled off her Kercher. 1780 J. T. Dillon Trav. Spain 178 The women tie a kercher round their heads. |
Hence ˈkerchered a., covered with a kercher.
| 1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. i. xii, Pale Sicknes, with his kercher'd head up wound. |