ˈcloth-yard
The yard by which cloth was measured: chiefly in cloth-yard shaft, applied in ballads to an arrow of the long bow.
This is now the statute yard of 36 inches; according to Act 3 & 4 Edward VI c. 2 §8 ‘cloth was to bee meten and measured by the yard, adding to every yard one inch of the rule’.
| c 1465 Chevy Chase 93 (MS. 16th c.) An arow, that a cloth yarde was lang, to the harde stele halyde he. [1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 88 That fellow handles his bow like a Crow⁓keeper: draw mee a Cloathiers yard.] a 1631 Drayton Robin Hood, They not an arrow drew but was a cloth-yard long. 1805 Scott Last. Minstr. iv. xv. A cloth-yard shaft Whistled from startled Tinlinn's yew. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. (1871) 1 With the yew bow and cloth-yard shaft at Cressy and Agincourt. |