2. (old).—See quots.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. Crashing chetes: appels, peares, or any other fruit.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874), Crashing cheates: apples.
Crater, Cratur, or Creature, subs. (old).—Formerly, any kind of liquor, but now, Irish whiskey. [Fuller speaks of water as 'a creature so common and needful,' and Bacon describes light as 'God's first creature.' Transition is easy.] The skin of the creature = the bottle. For synonyms, see Drinks.
1598. Shakspeare, II. King Henry IV., ii. 2. My appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer.
1663. Howard, The Committee, Act iv. Mrs. Day. Oh fie upon't! who would have believ'd that we should have liv'd to have seen Obadiah overcome with the creature.
1683. S.B. Anacreon done into English out of the original Greek. Oxford. There goes a very pleasant Story of him, that once having took a Cup too much of Creature, he came staggering homewards through the Market Place, etc;
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VII., ch. ii. You will never be able to hold out as Mr. Whitfield does. He seems to like a bit of the good cretur as well as other folks.
1816. Scott, Old Mortality, I., p. . . . I do most humbly request . . . that . . . thou wilt take off this measure, called by the profane a gill, of the comfortable creature, which the carnal do denominate brandy.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle's Log, ch. xiv. He produced two bottles of brandy . . . so we passed the creature round, and tried all we could to while away the tedious night.
1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 23. And reaching home refresh myself with a 'kervartern of the cratur!'
1864. Good Words, p. 952. Well as an Irishman—who had already paid for one pot of porter and a drop of the crater besides—I was not going to hear anything against ould Ireland.
Crawl, subs. (tailors').—A workman
who curries favour with a
foreman or employer; a 'lickspittle'
or 'bum-sucker.'
Crawler, subs. (common).—I. A
cab that leaves the rank and
'crawls' the street in search of
fares.
1860. Daily News. It is said the question of making increased provisions for cab-stands, with a view to the restriction of the wandering cabs called crawlers, is now under the consideration of the Chief Commissioner of Police.
1885. Daily News, August 7, p. 5, col. 1. How often does the driver of the crawler increase his pace just as he sees some one venturing to attempt a crossing.
2. (common).—A contemptible person, especially a 'bumsucker' or 'lickspittle.' For Synonyms, see Snide.
1885. Evening News, 21 Sept., p. 4, col. 1. The complainant called her father a liar, a bester, and a crawler.
Crawthumpers, subs. (old).—1.
Roman Catholics, 'the Pope's
cockrels' (1629). Also called
brisket-beaters and, collectively,
the breast-fleet. In
America a crawthumper =
an Irishman or dick, i.e., an
Irish Catholic.
1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. 7; in wks. (1809) I., 69. We are no crawthumpers, no devotees.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Craw Thumpers: Roman Catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.
1889. Philadelphia Public Ledger [quoted in S. J. & C., p. 279J. Wanted a servant-maid. No pulings or crawthumpers need apply.
Cream, suds. (venery).—The seminal
fluid; Marlowe's 'thrice
decocted blood'; the 'white-blow'
and the 'father-stuff' of
Whitman. A single drop is
called a snowball (q.v.).
