a1400 tr. Lanfranc (Ashm.) (1894) 193 Morphue.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc (Ashm.) (1894) 195 (MED) Þe white morphu [L. Morphea alba] is curid wiþ purgacioun þat purgiþ roten fleume.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc (Ashm.) (1894) 195 (MED) Þe blac morphe [L. Nigra..morphea] is curid wiþ ofte purging of malancoli.
?a1450 tr. Lanfranc (BL Add. 12056) (1894) 4 Cap. iiij of Morfu, ffrakles,..& Cicatrices of woundes.
?c1450 Stockh. Med. MS ii. 962 in (1896) 18 33 It distroith þe morphe And disposing to þe lepre.
a1500 in G. Henslow (1899) 115 (MED) For þe morphu: Take brinston and grynd it smal, [etc.].
?1541 R. Copland Maner to Examyne Lazares in sig. Qivv The seconde is a morfewe colour & derke.
1545 T. Raynald & R. Jonas in tr. E. Roesslin iv. sig. Y.viiiv This is also very good for the morpheu, and other discoloration or staynynge of the skyn.
1562 W. Turner Bk. Natures Bathes Eng. f. 1, in The bathes of brimstone..are good for the whyte morphewe and black.
1586 T. Bright xxi. 129 Then altereth it the colour, and fairenesse is turned into morphe.
1610 Bp. J. Hall 29 He cannot but acknowledge..a true face of a Church (though ouer-spreade with some morphue of corruptions).
1640 H. Mill 147 The morphew wals are growne so bleake and thin, They have..lost the outward skin.
1688 R. Holme ii. 428/1 Morphew is a disease that dyeth the skin yellow.
1748–9 No. 4440. Tetters, Ring-worms, Morphew, Sun-burn.
1796 E. Darwin II. 81 Morphew or freckles. Tawny blotches on the skin of the face and arms of elderly people.
1810 II. 106 A few morphews and wrinkles incident to her age.
1835 R. Browning iv. 153 My outward crust Of lies, which wrap, as tetter, morphew, furfair Wrap the sound flesh.
1925 H. Acton in 4 We groin with lappered morphews of the mind.
1980 E. Jong ii. xii. 280 And it being indeed a real Beautifier of the Skin, by taking off all deformities, as Tetters, Ringworms, Morphew, Sun-burn, Scurff, Pimples, Pits, or Redness of the Small Pox.