▪ I. † cree, crie, v.1 Obs. rare.
[a. F. créer (OF. also crier), ad. L. creāre to create.]
To create.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 3390 (Ashmole MS.) Ilka kyng suld him knaw cried [Dubl. MS. create] of þe soile. Ibid. 4519 He ȝoure nase & ȝoure nebb & all of noȝt cried. 1425 Petit. Earl of Norfolk in Rolls Parl. IV. 274/1 Yt liked to Kynge Rychard ye Seconde..to cree Thomas..into Duc of Norff. |
▪ II. cree, v.2 Chiefly dial.
(kriː)
Also 7 crey, crede, 9 creave, creeve.
[The original form was app. creve, creeve, a. F. crever to burst, split, in faire crever le riz, to cause rice to swell with boiling water or steam (Littré). For the reduction to cree, cf. Sc. preve pree, leve lee, etc. See also creve v.]
1. trans. To soften (grain) by boiling.
| 1620 Markham Farew. Hvsb. (1625) 135 Barley..may..be creyed, parcht, or boyled. 1655 Queen's Closet Opened 159 (D.) Take rie and crede it as you do wheat for Furmity. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words 18 To Cree Wheat or Barly, &c., to boil it soft. 1846 Gard. Chron. 237 To..pour boiling water on the malt would cause it to become solidified or creed. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Creave, or Cree, to pre-boil rice or wheat so as to soften it for cookery purposes..‘Creaving days’, those in the country when creaved wheat is prepared to sell in the town for Christmas frumity. 1877–88 in Holderness & Sheffield Gloss., Cree. |
2. intr. To become soft or pulpy by soaking or boiling.
| 1863 Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial., This rice is not good, I have boiled it for ten minutes, but it does not creeve. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., The sown wheat is said to ‘creave in the ground’ when it swells and bursts from over wet weather, instead of shooting. |
3. trans. To pound or crush into a soft mass. Hence creeing-trough, the ‘knocking-trough’ formerly used for pounding grain.
| 1822 T. Bewick Mem. (1862) 13 To ‘cree’ them with a wooden ‘mell’, in a stone trough, till the tops of the whins were beaten to the consistency of soft, wet grass. 1852 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIII. ii. 256 The corn was crushed in the mill, or in the creeing-trough. 1886 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club 360 A fine creeing-trough. |
Hence creed ppl. a.
| 1867 F. Francis Angling i. (1880) 31 On the Trent creed malt is a favourite roach-bait. 1890 Lincoln Gaz. 6 Sept. 8/1 [He] secured a nice basket of roach with creed wheat. |