▪ I. craw, n.
(krɔː)
Also 4–6 crawe, 6 craye.
[ME. crawe, repr. an unrecorded OE. *craᵹa, cogn. with OHG. chrago, MHG. krage, Du. kraag neck, throat; or else a later Norse krage, Da. krave in same sense. The limitation of sense in English is special to this language.]
1. The crop of birds or insects.
| 1388 Wyclif 2 Kings vi. 25 The crawe of culueris. Margin, In Latyn it is seid of the drit of culuers; but drit is..takun here..for the throte, where cornes, etun of culueris, ben gaderid. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 101 Craw, or crowpe of a byrde, or oþer fowlys, gabus, vesicula. 1552 Huloet, Craye or gorge of a byrde, ingluuies. 1565–78 Cooper Thesaurus, Chelidonii..Little stones in the crawe of a swallow. 1604 Drayton Owle 75 The Crane..With Sand and Gravell burthening his Craw. 1774 Hunter in Phil. Trans. LXIV. 313 Some birds, with gizzards, have a craw or crop also, which serves as a reservoir, and for softening the grain. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. viii. 209 Till their craws are full with feasting. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. 35 Such an agitation of plumage, redness of craw, and anger of manner as a maternal hen shows. |
2. transf. a. The stomach (of man or animals). humorous or derisive.
| 1573 A. Anderson Exp. Benedictus 43 (T.) To gorge their craws with bibbing cheer. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 320 b, Stuffing their crawes with most exquisite vyandes. 1791 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Remonstrance Wks. 1812. II. 449 They smite their hungry craws. 1822 Byron Juan viii. xlix, As tigers combat with an empty craw. |
† b. to cast the craw: to vomit. Obs.
| a 1529 Skelton El. Rummyng 489 Such a bedfellow Would make one cast his craw. |
† 3. transf. The breast of a hill. Obs. rare.
| a 1658 Cleveland May Day ii, Phœbus tugging up Olympus craw. |
† b. Humorously applied to a cravat, falling over the chest in a broad fold of lace or muslin.
See Fairholt s.v. Neckcloth.
| 1787 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 14 The creatures with monstrous craws. 1790 Poetry in Ann. Reg. 135 Now, at his word, th' obedient muslin swells, And beaux, with ‘Monstrous Craws,’ peep out at pouting belles. |
4. Comb. † craw-bone, the ‘merry-thought’ of a bird, which lies over the craw; craw-thumper (slang), one who beats his breast (at confession); applied derisively to Roman Catholic devotees; so craw-thump v.
| 1611 Cotgr, Bruchet, the craw-bone, or merrie thought of a bird. 1785 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ode to R. A.'s Wks. 1812 I. 93 We are no Craw-thumpers, no Devotees. 1797–1802 G. Colman Br. Grins, Knt. & Friar i. xxxv, Sir Thomas and the dame were in their pew Craw-thumping upon hassocks. 1873 Slang. Dict., Craw thumper, a Roman Catholic. Compare Brisket-beater. |
▪ II. † craw, v.1 Obs. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
a. trans. to craw out: to fill or distend like a bird's craw. b. to craw it: to fill one's ‘craw’.
| a 1658 Cleveland Content 31 To craw out a Purse With th' molten Cinders of the Universe? 1708 Motteux Rabelais v. vi. (1737) 20 We might..gorge it, craw it. |
▪ III. craw, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
[Echoic: see crow n.]
= caw v.: said of rooks or crows.
| a 1658 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 216 The Crowes..when the men wandered out of the way in the dark, would with their crawing, call them into the right way again. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Craw, to caw or croak; said of the crow and rook. |
▪ IV. craw
Sc. and north. form of crow.