| 释义 |
▪ I. croft, n.1|krɒft|
Also 5 ? crofe, croofte, 5–6 crofft(e, 5–7 crofte, 6–9 Sc. craft.
[OE. croft enclosed field, app. corresp. to Du. kroft, krocht prominent rocky height, high and dry land, field on the downs. Ulterior etymology unknown.]
1. A piece of enclosed ground, used for tillage or pasture: in most localities a small piece of arable land adjacent to a house.
Ray, N.C. Words 133, notices that in the north it implied adjacency to a dwelling-house, but that this attribute did not attach to its general English use. Cf. the Cornish use in quot. 1880, and the quot. from Milton 1634, which suggests the Dutch sense.
969Cod. Dipl. III. 37 (Bosw.) æt ðæs croftes heafod. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 478/558 Ase he stod in is crofte. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 35 For þei [birds] comen into my croft and croppen my whete. 1483Cath. Angl. 83 Crofte, confinium. 1486Bk. St. Albans F v b, Who that..closith his croofte wyth cheritrees. 1523Fitzherbert Surv. i b, A curtylage is a lytell croft or court..to put in catell for a tyme. 1604in Eng. Gilds (1870) 437 All ould tenants shall haue a croft and a medow. 1634Milton Comus 531 Tending my flocks hard by i' th' hilly Crofts That brow this bottom glade. 1718F. Hutchinson Witchcraft xv. (1720) 268 In a croft or close adjoining to his Father's House. 1794Wordsw. Guilt & Sorrow xxiv, A little croft we owned—a plot of corn. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. viii, To occupy her husband's cottage, and cultivate..a croft of land adjacent. 1842Tennyson Two Voices, Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew. 1864Glasgow Herald 16 May, The croft is now generally the best land of the farm, and every farm almost has its croft. 1880W. Cornwall Gloss., Croft, an enclosed common not yet cultivated.
b. fig.
c1460Towneley Myst. 314 Com to my crofte Alle ye..Welcom to my see. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. 184 b, Quhilk proues..vs to be as fruictful tries in the croft or feild of the kirk. 1636James Iter Lanc. (1845) 360 Happie they whose dwelling's in Christs crofte.
c. toft and croft: a messuage with land attached: see toft1.
2. A small agricultural holding worked by a peasant tenant; esp. that of a crofter in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (see quot. 1851).
1842Alison Hist. Europe XIV. xcv. §53 It has covered the country, not with Tuscan freeholds, but with Irish crofts. 18512nd Rep. Relief of Destit. Highlands 1850, 42 The crofting system was first introduced, by the arable part of the small farms previously held in common being divided among the joint tenants in separate crofts, the pasture remaining in common. 1883A. R. Wallace Land National. in Macm. Mag., The Highland crofters are confined to miserably small holdings—the largest croft in Skye..being seven acres. 1884Spectator 17 May 642 In some parts of North Uist there are no crofts in individual ownership.
3. attrib. and Comb., as croft-bleaching, bleaching by exposure on the grass; croft-land, ‘the land of superior quality, which, according to the old mode of farming, was still cropped’ (Jam.).
1791Statist. Acc. Dumfr. I. 181 (Jam.) Lime and manure were unknown, except on a few acres of what is called croft⁓land, which was never out of crop. 1796Trans. Soc. Enc. Arts XIV. 154 Waste land, consisting of marsh, croft, and sandy soils. 1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 366 After being altered by the action of chlorine, or by insolation or croft-bleaching. 1878Cumbrld. Gloss., Croft land, a range of fields near the house, of equally good quality with the croft.
▪ II. croft, n.2 rare.
[Cf. Du. krocht, MDu. crochte, crofte, MLG. kruft, OHG. chruft, ad. L. crupta, crypta.]
A crypt, vault, cavern.
1470–85Malory Arthur xvii. xviii, Thenne he loked in to a Crofte vnder the mynster and there he sawe a Tombe. 1861Temple & Trevor Tannhäuser 88 From low-brow'd caves, and hollow crofts Under the hanging woods, there came..A voice of wail. 1887Kentish Gloss., Croft, a vault.
▪ III. croft
corruption of carafe.
1852M. W. Savage R. Medlicott iii. xiii. (D.), The Bishop..pushed the croft to the Vicar.
▪ IV. croft, v.|krɒft|
[f. croft n.1]
To expose (linen, etc.) on the grass to sun and air, as part of the process of bleaching. Hence ˈcrofting vbl. n.
1772[cf. crofter2]. 1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 367 One exposure may not be found enough; another washing and another crofting are then needed. Ibid. 391 Washed and spread out on the green, or crofted. |