calf-skin
Also calf's-, calves-, calve-.
The skin or hide of a calf; a superior kind of leather made from this, and used in bookbinding, shoemaking, etc. More rarely = vellum.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iii. 18 Hee that goes in the calues-skin, that was kil'd for the Prodigall. 1595 ― John iii. i. 129 Hang a Calues skin on those recreant limbes! 1604 in Shaks. C. Praise 60 Master Bursebell the calves-skin scrivener. 1704 Swift T. Tub v. 75 Copies, well-bound in calf-skin. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 74, 990 calve-skins [exported in 1 yr. from Petersburg]. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Courage 207 Cowardice shuts the eyes till the sky is not larger than a calf-skin. |
† b. A purse, etc., made of calf-skin. Obs.
| 1618 Dekker Owles Alman., This puts..coyne into the Painters calueskinne. |
† c. attrib.
| 1606 Wily Beguiled Prol. (N.) His calfs-skin jests from hence are clear exil'd. 1785 Grose Class. Dict. Vulg. Tongue Calf-skin fiddle, a drum. |