croftn.1
/krɒft/, U.S. /krɔft/ 1.
a. 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > [noun] > enclosed land or field > small field or enclosure
parrockeOE
croft969
pightlec1200
curtilagec1330
gartha1340
toftc1440
pingle1546
lot1789
log-paddock1900
969 Cod. Dipl. III. 37 (Bosw.) Æt ðæs croftes heafod.
c1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 478/558 Ase he stod in is crofte.
1362 W. Langland Piers Plowman A. vii. 35 For þei [birds] comen into my croft and croppen my whete.
1483 Cath. Angl. 83 Crofte, confinium.
1486 Bk. St. Albans F v b Who that..closith his croofte wyth cheritrees.
1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng i. f. 1v A curtylage is a lytell croft or court..to put in catell for a tyme.
1604 in J. T. Smith & L. T. Smith Eng. Gilds (1870) 437 All ould tenants shall haue a croft and a medow.
1637 J. Milton Comus 18 Tending my flocks hard by i'th hilly crofts That brow this bottome glade.
1718 F. Hutchinson Hist. Ess. conc. Witchcraft xv. 214 In a Croft or Close adjoining to his Father's House.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian vii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. I. 188 To occupy her husband's cottage, and cultivate..a croft of land adjacent.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Two Voices in Poems (new ed.) II. 117 Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew.
1864 Glasgow Herald 16 May The croft is now generally the best land of the farm, and every farm almost has its croft.
1880 M. A. Courtney W. Cornwall Words in M. A. Courtney & T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 16/1 Croft, a small common.
b. figurative.
ΚΠ
a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. xxx. 415 Com to my crofte, Alle ye..; Welcom to my see!
1588 A. King tr. P. Canisius Cathechisme or Schort Instr. 184 b Quhilk proues..vs to be as fruictful tries in the croft or feild of the kirk.
1636 R. James Iter Lancastrense (1845) 360 Happie they whose dwelling's in Christs crofte.
c. toft and croft: a messuage with land attached: see toft n.1
2. A small agricultural holding worked by a peasant tenant; esp. that of a crofter n.1 in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (see quot. 1851).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > [noun] > small holding or croft
manslotOE
bargain1602
burgaine1607
smallholding1696
possession1717
farmlet1794
homecroft1828
croft1850
crofting1851
five-acre1863
three acres and a cow1885
farmette1913
minifundium1950
minifundioa1955
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > a legal holding > [noun] > held by types of farm tenure
runrig1437
run-ridge1741
rundale1819
croft1850
1850 A. Alison Hist. Europe from French Revol. (new ed.) XIV. xcv. 130 It has covered the country, not with Tuscan freeholds, but with Irish crofts.
1851 2nd 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.
1883 A. R. Wallace Land Nationalization in Macmillan's Mag. The Highland crofters are confined to miserably small holdings—the largest croft in Skye..being seven acres.
1884 Spectator 17 May 642 In some parts of North Uist there are no crofts in individual ownership.
Compounds
C1. attributive and in other combinations.
ΚΠ
1796 Trans. Soc. Arts 16 154 Waste land, consisting of marsh, croft, and sandy soils.
C2.
croft-bleaching n. bleaching by exposure on the grass.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > white or whiteness > whitening > [noun] > bleaching > bleaching by exposure
insolation1617
grassing1705
croft-bleaching1875
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 366 After being altered by the action of chlorine, or by insolation or croft-bleaching.
croft-land n. ‘the land of superior quality, which, according to the old mode of farming, was still cropped’ (Jamieson).
ΚΠ
1791 Statist. 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.
1878 W. Dickinson Gloss. Words & Phrases Cumberland (ed. 2) Croft land, a range of fields near the house, of equally good quality with the croft.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
croftn.2
/krɒft/, U.S. /krɔft/, /krɑft/α. Old English cruft, Old English cruftan (inflected form), early Middle English crufte, late Middle English croufte.
β. Middle English 1800s– croft, late Middle English crofte.
Now rare.
An underground vault, a crypt. Also: a cave, a cavern.Recorded earliest in β forms in undercroft n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > burial > grave or burial-place > burial-chamber > [noun] > crypt
croftOE
crowd1399
crypta1563
crypt1583
α.
β. 1395 in J. W. Legg & W. H. St. J. Hope Inventories of Christchurch, Canterbury (1902) 99 (MED) [She should be buried] prope altare beate Marie dicte ecclesie Cant. in Criptis que under croft vulgariter nuncupatur.1485 Malory's Morte Darthur (Caxton) xvii. xviii. sig. T.vv Thenne he loked in to a Crofte [a1470 Winch. Coll. croufte] vnder the mynster and there he sawe a Tombe.1703 N. Battely Somner's Antiq. Canterbury (rev. ed.) ii. i. iv. 16 A Croft under the whole of it, having an arched Roof of Stone.1790 Trans. Royal Irish Acad. 1789 3 Antiquities 83 The method therefore of building churches entirely of stone, with upper crofts, was a great improvement.1819 J. Storer Hist. & Antiq. Cathedral Churches of Great Brit. IV. Worcester: p. (g) The crypt or croft furnishes the most unquestionable evidence of the great antiquity of this building.1861 ‘N. Temple’ & ‘E. Trevor’ Tannhäuser 88 From low-brow'd caves, and hollow crofts Under the hanging woods, there came..A voice of wail.1887 W. D. Parish & W. F. Shaw Dict. Kentish Dial. Croft, a vault.1952 D. M. Jones Anathemata v. 127 Chthonic matres under the croft: springan a Maye's Aves to clerestories. Delphi in sub-crypt: luce flowers to steeple.OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 278 Criptę : cruftan [corrected in MS to cruftes].
OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 360 Cripta : cruftan, antro.
a1200 Glossae in Apollinarem Sidonium in Anecdota Oxoniensia (1885) Classical Ser. I. v. 30 Cripta,..quod est proprie crufte.
a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll. 13) (1990) II. 1026 Than he loked into a croufte [1485 Caxton Crofte] undir the mynstir, and there he sawe a tombe.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
croftn.3
= carafe n.
ΚΠ
1852 M. W. Savage Reuben Medlicott iii. xiii The Bishop..pushed the croft to the Vicar.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
croftv.
/krɒft/, U.S. /krɔft/ To expose (linen, etc.) on the grass to sun and air, as part of the process of bleaching.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > white or whiteness > whitening > make white [verb (transitive)] > bleach > by exposure
bleak1398
bleach1582
grass1650
sour1756
croft1875
photobleach1948
1772 [implied in: Manchester Directory 53 Alphabetical list of the Crofters or Whitsters. (at crofter n.2)].
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 391 Washed and spread out on the green, or crofted.
Derivatives
ˈcrofting n.
ΚΠ
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 367 One exposure may not be found enough; another washing and another crofting are then needed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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